Is medication administration in the elderly influenced by nurses’ demographics in South Africa?

Abstract

Background: Globally, nurses are increasingly employed post-retirement, with task-shifting to nurses with lower competencies, a lack of knowledge being a barrier, all of which could lead to medication errors.

Aim: To describe the impact of nurses’ age, experience, training, and skill mix on the medication administration processes in long-term care facilities (LTCFs).

Setting: Nurses (N=123) working in 28 LTCFs in the Western Cape province, South Africa.

Methods: A quantitative non-experimental, cross-sectional descriptive design was used. The LTCFs were divided into funded (state-subsidised) and private (for profit) facilities using a stratified sampling method and each stratum thereafter randomised to obtain equal samples from each stratum. Self-administered questionnaires with close-ended statements were used, and statistical software (SPSS version 27) to perform descriptive and inferential analyses.

Results: Respondents, (27%), had more than nine years of experience, with 15.8% aged 61-70 years; and 3.5% aged 71-80 years. Some were ‘very inexperienced’ in computer use (29.3%), 35% received medication training longer than five years ago, and n=28 nurses administered medication outside their scope of practice. The highest sources of job pressure were an increase in workloads (75.6%), being under stress (42.3%), and being overworked (39.0%).

Conclusion: The aging nursing workforce, although experienced, found the job demands, paperwork, and technology barriers. Outdated training and delegating medication administration to lower categories of nurses can lead to medication errors.

Contribution: This study’s findings can serve as a guideline for creating succession plans, recruiting procedures, development, and training of nurses, and improving clinical practices.