Medication Safety Risks and Their Management in Finnish Care Units: A Cross-Sectional Survey.
Introduction: Deficiencies in medication safety are a major concern for patient safety. In Finland, health and social care units are mandated to develop unit-based protocols for safe medication management and use (MMU) to address medication safety risks. Objectives: The aim of this study is to exami...
| Publicado en: | Health Services Insights Vol. 19; pp. 1 - 14 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications Inc.
7/23/2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=195627441&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 195627441 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 11786329 B10H jtl: Health Services Insights issn: 11786329 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 7/23/2026 vid: 19 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. place: Thousand Oaks, California artinfo: ui: 195627441 195627441 195627441 10.1177/11786329261472941 195627441 ppf: 1 ppct: 13 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Medication Safety Risks and Their Management in Finnish Care Units: A Cross-Sectional Survey. aug: au: Saavalainen, Anu Kuusisto, Marianne Linden-Lahti, Carita Laukkanen, Emilia Vahlberg, Tero Holmström, Anna-Riia affil: Division of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland sug: subj: Patient Safety Evaluation Medication Errors Risk Factors Medication Management Health Facilities Finland Protocols Risk Management Human Finland Female Male Adult Middle Age Cross Sectional Studies Descriptive Research Questionnaires Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Chi Square Test T-Tests Mann-Whitney U Test Kruskal-Wallis Test Quality of Health Care Quality Improvement Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Female Male ab: Introduction: Deficiencies in medication safety are a major concern for patient safety. In Finland, health and social care units are mandated to develop unit-based protocols for safe medication management and use (MMU) to address medication safety risks. Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine how unit-based safe MMU protocols are developed in Finnish health and social care settings and how comprehensive the content of these protocols is. Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive study. Methods: An online survey was conducted among Finnish registered nurses and pharmacists working in health and social care settings. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and statistical tests (t-tests, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H) were applied to examine group differences. Sum variables were created to assess protocol content comprehensiveness. The study was conducted and reported in accordance with the STROBE guidelines for cross-sectional studies. Results: The survey included 905 participants (90.2% nurses and 9.8% pharmacists). Most respondents (91.5%) reported having a unit-based MMU protocol. Only 11.6% indicated that the protocol was developed through interprofessional collaboration, which was more common in healthcare than in social care. Overall, respondents considered the protocols comprehensive, with no major differences between work environments. The least detailed areas were medication safety management (mean 3.09), medication reconciliation and patient involvement (mean 3.13), and risk management in the MMU process (mean 3.30). Conclusions: Unit-based safe MMU protocols are key tools in describing the MMU process and medication safety practices in Finnish health and social care. However, greater emphasis is needed on interprofessional development, particularly in social care settings, with increased involvement of physicians and pharmacists. Preventive, system-based medication safety risk management needs to be strengthened in the protocols and the competencies of healthcare professionals in the present area. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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