Ergonomic Factors Triggering Risk in the Pharmacotherapy Process Carried Out by Nurses

The pharmacotherapy process consists, among other things, of storing medicines, ordering a medicine by a doctor, dissolving and administering a drug to a patient, and is carried out by nurses. This process is very important for the safety of patient treatment. Nurses should also feel safe when carrying out such an important professional activity. The analysis of potential triggers of risk will make it possible to develop preventive measures in order to limit adverse events related to this. The study covered 305 nurses employed in hospitals and primary healthcare centres in Poland. The study used a diagnostic poll method, which was developed by the authors of the poll. The poll identified nine psychosocial and organisational ergonomic factors that could trigger risks in the pharmacotherapy process carried out by nurses. The nurses recognised the following factors with a very high risk in the pharmacotherapy process: unreadable medical orders (82%), poor communication between the physician and nurse (55%), time pressure during nurse duties (70%), drug preparation for patients combined with other activities performed by nurses (74%), lack of orders by the physician to use individual/specific solvents for drugs (63%) or shift work causing psychophysiological fatigue (52%). The professional activity of nurses is associated with ergonomic factors that trigger numerous significant risks in the pharmacotherapy process. Nurses do not have a full sense of safety in the implementation of pharmacotherapy, and thus patients may also feel threatened.