Development and application during clinical simulation of MEDISIM, a checklist for assessing nursing students’ competence in safe medication administration

Abstract

Aim: To develop and apply during clinical simulation a checklist for assessing nursing students' competence in safe medication administration. Design and Method: Two-stage instrumental study: 1) Development and preliminary validation of the checklist; 2) observational study of first- and second-year students to assess reliability of the checklist and analyze the results obtained. The observation involved simulation scenarios in which students had to administer intravenous medication. Results and Conclusions: The MEDISIM checklist comprises 26 items and shows good psychometric properties (Cronbach's alpha = .842; inter-observer reliability = .974). A high proportion of students were observed to have adequate needle technique (86%) and to wash their hands prior to preparing medication” (72%), whereas far fewer disinfected the catheter hub before administering medication (18%) or checked for drug allergies (33%). Mean scores (out of a possible 26) were 15.2 (SD 4.54) among year 1 students and 18.0 (SD 5.29) for year 2 students (p < .001). The results obtained highlight areas that need to be addressed in nurse education, as well as by students in their independent learning.