Role of the nurses in partnering with mothers to give oral medication to their hospitalised child: Modification and development of a contextualised evidence-based practice guideline.
Nadia Harris, Andrea Amos, Natasha North
PMID 34636623WHAT IT FOUND
A new guideline standardises how nurses in South Africa can safely delegate oral medication administration to mothers.
It replaces informal ward practices with a structured process for assessing maternal competence, obtaining consent, and maintaining nurse supervision.
Key findings
01The guideline defines four themes for safe delegation: assessment, teaching, implementation, and documentation.
02Nurses must assess the mother's competence and obtain informed consent before delegating medication administration.
03The nurse retains ultimate accountability for patient safety and must continue to monitor the child for adverse reactions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The guideline was developed through adaptation and expert consensus rather than testing in a clinical trial. The evidence base for the specific recommendations is limited, with many graded as low quality (Level II-V). The guideline is specific to the South African legal and resource context and may not be directly applicable elsewhere without further adaptation. The authors note a lack of high-quality evidence regarding interventions to prevent medication errors in paediatric populations in African settings.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was conducted as part of postgraduate work at the University of Cape Town.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this guideline as evidence that delegating medication to mothers reduces errors. The paper describes the development of a protocol to standardise existing informal practices; it does not report data on patient outcomes or error rates resulting from its implementation.