Medication errors in chemotherapy occur frequently and have a high potential to cause considerable harm. IV infusion errors, which usually involve high-risk medications delivered directly into the patient's bloodstream, have been identified as having the greatest potential for harm. IV infusion programming errors have a greater likelihood of causing injury or death. Nurses must strive to keep p...

Intravenous (IV) access is a common and essential emergency department procedure, which may be challenging in certain patients. Populations notorious for difficult IV access include injection drug users, diabetics, obese patients, or those in hypoperfusion states. Central venous catheter placement becomes the default solution when attempts at peripheral access prove unsuccessful. Yet, many pati...

INTRODUCTION The economic crisis in Greece has substantially affected patients with COPD. The reduction of disposable income has its consequences on patients' ability to afford their medication. The aim of the study is to evaluate the cost of treatment for patients with COPD and the influence of the financial crisis to the patients. METHODS Data were collected from 189 patients (male: 178, me...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Preincisional and postoperative transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) administration reduces postoperative opioid demand in abdominal surgery. Aim of this study was to find out whether a comparable effect of TENS applies in major spinal surgery. METHODS Thirty-eight patients of both sex scheduled for lumbar interbody fusion were enrolled and divided rando...

OBJECTIVE to stratify prescribed medication in a fall risk scale, identifying subgroups of drugs and inpatient units with higher risk of falls. METHOD retrospective study on prescription order forms given by medical clinic, surgical clinic, and general intensive care unit. Risk factors under consideration: 1) orthostatic hypotension; 2) arterial hypotension; 3) arterial hypertension; 4) brady...

PROBLEM: The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has repeatedly emphasized that parenteral syringes should never be used to prepare or administer oral or enteral products; instead, an oral syringe should always be used. Over the years, this advice has appeared in numerous ISMP newsletters and educational presentations. However, many organizations have still not followed this simple b...

PURPOSE To compare the efficacy of acupressure wrist bands and ondansetron for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). METHODS One hundred and fifty ASA I-II, patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were included in a randomized, prospective, double-blind and placebo-controlled study. Patients were divided into three groups of 50. Group I was the control;...

BACKGROUND Drug use evaluation is a performance improvement method that evaluates medication-use processes. Medication studies are especially important for drugs with narrow therapeutic index, specific indication, high costs as well as for drugs with widespread use. Intravenous pantoprazole always ranked among the top 5 costly drugs in Amir-al-Momenin Hospital. Considering the fact that widespr...

objective: we aimed to describe psychiatrists' attributions on non-compliance related issues resulting in re-hospitalizations of psychiatric patients. method: in a cross sectional study, we included 500 randomly selected psychiatric readmitted patients and registered their demographic data (including age, sex, job, marital status, and educational level), and psychiatric clinical data including ...

background: nowadays, self-medication of therapeutic agents is of global concern particularly in developing and underdeveloped countries. some studies conducted in iran showed that the frequency of self-medication was significant. objective: this research was conducted to estimate the prevalence of arbitrary use of antibiotics in shiraz community with special interest in its determinant factors...