Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
12-2-2025
First Advisor
Sandy King
Second Advisor
Kristie Givens
Abstract
Psychiatric emergencies contribute to medication safety issues due to increased stress, inconsistent practices, and communication breakdowns. The problem was high rates of medication errors in psychiatric emergencies due to the lack of a structured, standardized medication management protocol. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement project aimed to reduce medication errors in administering emergency medications in an inpatient psychiatric unit by using the Medication Administration Cross-Check (MACC) checklist. The project was completed using a quasi-experimental research design guided by the Donabedian Model of Healthcare Quality and Lewin’s Change Model. Pretest and posttest knowledge, confidence, attitude, and perceptions were obtained from 12 nurses before and after staff education on the MACC checklist. Medication error rates were obtained from the hospital’s records at pretest and after six weeks. A Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that the median of pretest knowledge (Mdn = 2.00) was significantly lower than the median of posttest knowledge (Mdn = 4.00) (p = 0.002). Medication errors decreased from 16 cases pre-intervention to 3 cases post-intervention, indicating an 81.25% reduction. A short duration limited the project. The findings showed that structured, evidence-based instruments such as the MACC checklist can enhance medication safety in psychiatric emergencies at the project site and underscore the importance of continuous competency training and standard procedures to minimize medication errors in high-acuity cases. It was concluded that the adoption of evidence-based medication management checklists can improve medication safety in psychiatric emergencies in a psychiatric unit.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Anusiem, Sandra, "Quality Improvement Project: Improving Emergency Medication Administration Safety in an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit" (2025). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 280.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/280
