Adherence to safety barriers in medication administration: patients' perception.

Single medical clinic in one Brazilian hospital with a convenience sample, so results may not apply to other units, hospitals or countries. Patients reported their perception of professionals' adherence; the study did not directly observe medication administration or compare patient reports with staff or records. The electronic form was developed for this study, limiting comparison with other surveys. Patients in isolation, and those unable to communicate verbally or oriented in time, space and person, were excluded. The hospital had Gold Quality certifications, so findings may not reflect institutions without those quality seals. The cross-sectional design cannot show why age was associated with perception or that any practice caused better perception. Responses of I do not know and does not apply were scored as 0, so uncertainty or non-applicable items may have lowered perception scores.

Do not conclude that nurses caused medication errors or that actual safety barriers were absent. The study measured patients' perception of health professionals' adherence in one hospital, not directly observed medication administration or error rates.