Nursing Practice Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Extravasation in Patients Receiving High-Risk Medication in the Inpatient Department, Cha-am Hospital

Abstract

Abstract

This research and development aimed to develop a nursing practice guideline for prevention and management of extravasation in patients receiving high-risk drugs and to study the incidence of drug leakage after implementation of the guideline. The purposive sample group was selected, consisting of 40 inpatient nurses and 30 inpatients receiving high-risk drugs. The research instruments consisted of (1) a general information questionnaire yielding a CVI value of 1; (2) a treatment record form yielding a CVI value of 1; (3) a knowledge test on prevention and management of drug leakage yielding a KR-20 value of 0.82; (4) a feasibility assessment form of implementing the guideline yielding a CVI value of 1; and (5) a nursing clinical practice assessment form yielding a CVI value of 0.95. The quality of the guidelines was checked with AGREE II, yielding an average value of more than 75 per cent and a CVI value was 0.95. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-test.

The results found that the nursing practice guidelines for preventing and managing of extravasation consisted of 3 main components: (1) assessment of drug leakage characteristics; (2) guidelines to prevent drug leakage; and (3) guidelines  to manage drug leakage. Professional nurses believed that the practice can solve the problems and benefit to the service recipients (Mean 4.95, SD 0.22). The incident rate of drug leakage after the guideline implementation was lower than before the guideline implementation (0.14 times and 0.72 times per 1,000 days of high-risk drug administration, respectively). This guideline can be applied for caring the patients receiving high-risk medications to improve good nursing outcomes of the patients.