Study utilization of parenteral medications in pediatric unit of universitary hospital

Abstract

Parenteral drug administration has clinical relevance in pediatric care and the risk of acquire nosocomial infection. The purpose of this observational cross-sectional study was to describe the utilization of parenteral drugs in a pediatric unit. A research questionnaire was created. The variables about pharmacotherapy were collect in prescriptions. The descriptive statistical analysis was performed using SPSS A total of 75 patients were admitted, 56% were male. The age range most frequently was the infants. The length of hospitalization was over 20 days (24.0%), 6 to 10 days (21.3%) and less than 3 days (17.3%). Parenteral route was used to 56 (74.7%) patients, so 19 (25.3%) used other routes or did not use medicine. Intravenous route was used to 52 (92.9%) patients. Overall, 47 different parenteral drugs were prescribed . The average of 4 drugs per patient requires more time of nursing team in activities related with drug administration. The high number of drug prescribed per patient raise concern about safety. The pharmacist should stimulate conversion from parenteral to oral administration .