Evaluating Educational Intervention to Improve Drug Administration Practice in Out-Patient Children in Northwestern Nigeria

Drug administration practice of mothers from 20 facilities (12 primary and 8 secondary) in northwestern Nigeria were assessed prospectively with the aim of identifying the type, frequency and potential clinical significance of drug administration errors in paediatric outpatients. The data was analyzed and errors classified according to National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention taxonomy. Educational interventions were designed and administered to mothers of 10 (6 primary and 4 secondary) least performing facilities, while the remaining 10 facilities acted as control. The percentage of the parents that claimed to knew the correct dosage were relatively high (78% to 93%) and differ significantly between the secondary and primary facilities. Further assessment shows that the dose of the drugs dispensed, the time/frequency of administration, and the duration of use were not known by 68.2% (330/484), 63.0% (305/484), and 12.0% (58/484) of the mothers respectively. The overall total possibility of the drug administration errors significantly reduced in the right direction (p<0.0005; d=4.27) after the intervention.