Telehealth Education for Caregivers of Children to Improve Liquid Medication Dosing Accuracy

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to educate adult learnersfrom the Telehealth Learning Center (TLC) at the University of Arizona on proper liquid medication preparation for the pediatric population, focusing on dosing accuracy. Background: Previous studies have found that parents and caregivers of children are dosing liquid medications inaccurately at home at a high rate. These dosing errors may contribute to adverse drug events (ADEs) ranging from minimal harm to death and, subsequently, additional healthcare costs. Rushed post-discharge processes and ineffective healthcare provider medication education and counseling have been identified as contributing factors to these high rates of dosing inaccuracy. Educational counseling strategies have been associated with improving the rates of dosing accuracy among caregivers of children. Methods: For this quality improvement (QI) project, 19 participants were recruited from the University of Arizona’s Telehealth Learning Center. These participants took part in a telehealth- like educational counseling session via the Zoom platform. Pre- and post-surveys focusing on liquid medication preparation and administration were conducted through Qualtrics to assess demographics, knowledge, confidence, and intent to use information learned. A manual test, performed pre- and post-intervention, evaluated participants’ ability to dose accurately. Results: Nineteen total participants completed the pre- and post-intervention tests. The data from the pretests and posttests found that post-intervention liquid medication dosing accuracy and knowledge of medication preparation and administration improved. Self-reported confidence rates in the ability to dose accurately were high in the pretest. These confidence rates decreased slightly in the posttest. Participants self-reported the education session to be informative and were likely to use the information learned in the future. Conclusion: The results of this QI project support the use of a telehealth-based educational session that uses a combination of counseling strategies to improve liquid medication dosing accuracy and medication preparation and administration knowledge.