ORIGINAL RESEARCH Paediatric nurses’ adherence to the double-checking process during medication administration in a children’s hospital: an observational study Zayed Alsulami, Imti Choonara & Sharon Conroy Accepted for publication 12 October 2013 Correspondence to Z. Alsulami: e-mail: mzxza@nottingham.ac.uk Zayed Alsulami BPharm MSc PhD Student Academic Division of Child Health, School of Graduate Entry Medicine and Health, University of Nottingham, Derby, UK Imti Choonara MD MBChB FRCP Professor in Child Health Academic Division of Child Health, School of Graduate Entry Medicine and Health, University of Nottingham, Derby, UK Sharon Conroy BPharm PhD MRPharmS Lecturer in Paediatric Clinical Pharmacy Academic Division of Child Health, School of Graduate Entry Medicine and Health, University of Nottingham, Derby, UK ALSULAMI Z., CHOONARA I. & CONROY S. (2013) Paediatric nurses’ adherence to the double-checking process during medication administration in a children’s hospital: an observational study. Journal of Advanced Nursing 00(0), 000–000. doi: 10.1111/jan.12303 Abstract Aim. To evaluate how closely double-checking policies are followed by nurses in paediatric areas and also to identify the types, frequency and rates of medication administration errors that occur despite the double-checking process. Background. Double-checking by two nurses is an intervention used in many UK hospitals to prevent or reduce medication administration errors. There is, however, insufficient evidence to either support or refute the practice of double- checking in terms of medication error risk reduction. Design. Prospective observational study. Methods. This was a prospective observational study of paediatric nurses’ adherence to the double-checking process for medication administration from April–July 2012. Results. Drug dose administration events (n = 2000) were observed. Independent drug dose calculation, rate of administering intravenous bolus drugs and labelling of flush syringes were the steps with lowest adherence rates. Drug dose calculation was only double-checked independently in 591 (30%) drug administrations. There was a statistically significant difference in nurses’ adherence rate to the double-checking steps between weekdays and weekends in nine of the 15 evaluated steps. Medication administration errors (n = 191) or deviations from policy were observed, at a rate of 9Á6% of drug administrations. These included 64 drug doses, which were left for parents to administer without nurse observation. Conclusion. There was variation between paediatric nurses’ adherence to double- checking steps during medication administration. The most frequent type of administration errors or deviation from policy involved the medicine being given to the parents to administer to the child when the nurse was not present. Keywords: double-checking, medication administration errors, nursing, paediatric hospital, preparation errors © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 JAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING