Medication interaction: knowledge of nurses in intensive care units
Objective: To evaluate adult intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' knowledge of medication interactions (IM) in three public hospitals in Goias. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using a population of 64 and a sample of 51 nurses. An instrument was constructed to collect data, using information from the database MICROMEDEX (r) Results: Regarding the knowledge of clinical management of IM, there was approximately the same number of right and wrong answers among 50% of the nurses. Nurses had better knowledge about drugs with sedative and analgesic action; nurses demonstrated less knowledge about drugs with anti infective and anti hypertensive actions. Conclusion: It is necessary to sensitize the authorities and professionals about the importance of IM in the ICU, and to implement actions for patient safety related to drug therapy.