A Comparison of Pharmacy Student Intern and Nurse Impact on Home Medication List Completeness During Medication Reconciliation

Abstract

Specific Aims: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to compare the completeness of home medication lists generated upon hospital admission between pharmacy student interns and nurses. Methods: This project was a retrospective review of completed home medication lists obtained by pharmacy student interns or nurses in a Southern Arizona community hospital. During August and September 2013, medication lists from the previous day’s admissions were collected and de-identified. Medication lists were included in the evaluation if the patient was admitted directly to the hospital or through the emergency department, stayed for at least 24 hours and had at least one home medication upon admission. The primary outcome was the number of omissions left on home medication lists completed by pharmacy student interns or nurses. An omission was defined as any missing information in the medication list categories of drug name, dose, unit, route or frequency. Main Results: Fifty medication lists that included 519 medications were collected in the pharmacy student intern group and forty-four lists that included 376 medications were collected in the nurse group. Of the total medications, nurses left significantly more omissions in the categories of dose (19% vs. 1.9%), units (20.2% vs. 2.3%), and frequency (11% vs. 0.7%), where the P-value was < 0.05 for each. Lastly, the total number of omissions left by nurses compared to pharmacy student interns was significantly different (201 vs. 35 omissions, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Compared to nurses, these results suggest pharmacy student interns left fewer omissions and created a more complete home medication list for patients being admitted to the hospital.