Journal
PREHOSPITAL EMERGENCY CARE
Volume 21, Issue 2, Pages 185-191Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/10903127.2016.1227001
Keywords
Key words; prehospital; emergency medical services; pediatric; medication errors; patient safety; safety culture
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: Pediatric drug dosing errors occur at a high rate in the prehospital environment. Objective: To describe paramedic training and practice regarding pediatric drug administration, exposure to pediatric drug dose errors and safety culture among paramedics and EMS agencies in a national sample. Methods: An electronic questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 10,530 nationally certified paramedics. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Results: There were 1,043 (9.9%) responses and 1,014 paramedics met inclusion criteria. Nearly half (43.0%) were familiar with a case where EMS personnel delivered an incorrect pediatric drug dose. Over half (58.5%) believed their initial paramedic program did not include enough pediatric training. Two-thirds (66.0%) administered a pediatric drug dose within the past year. When estimating the weight of a pediatric patient, 54.2% used a length-based tape, while 35.8% asked the parent or guardian, and 2.5% relied on a smart phone application. Only 19.8% said their agency had an anonymous error-reporting system and 50.7% believed they could report an error without fear of disciplinary action. For solutions, 89.0% believed an EMS-specific Broselow-Luten Tape would be helpful, followed by drug dosing cards in milliliters (83.0%) and changing content of standardized pediatric courses to be more relevant (77.7%). Conclusion: This national survey demonstrated a significant number of paramedics are aware of a pediatric dosing error, safety systems specific to pediatric patients are lacking, and that paramedics view pediatric drug cards and eliminating drug calculations as helpful. Pediatric drug-dosing safety in the prehospital environment can be improved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available