Browsing by Author "Pakarainen, Leena"

Healthcare professionals in patient care, including practical nurses, need medicines in-formation in their work. One strategic goal in national Medicines Information Strategy in Finland is to make sure, that healthcare professionals use reliable information sources and services. One part of the national medicines information network in Finland is work-ing group on medicines information for healthcare professionals. It's central aim is to advance availability of reliable medicines information in different environments in social- and healthcare. Objective of this study was to explore medicines information sources and needs among practical nurses. This study concentrated on practical nurses who work in atypical areas of medical care (for example at school and day care), homecare and social care and were members of The Finnish Union of Practical Nurses. Survey was made in co-operation by working group on medicines information for healthcare professionals and The Finnish Union of Practical Nurses. The survey was carried out in December 2013 - January 2014 by e-mail. The random sample consisted of 1 000 practical nurses. The material was analyzed using direct distributions, cross tabulation, Kruskal-Wallis -test and Mann-Whitney U-test. Open ended questions were analyzed by qualitative methods. The response rate was 67 (n = 666). The most commonly utilized medicines information among practical nurses were package leaflets (PL) and medical database Terveysportti. Those sources were also the most preferred ones. Practical nurses reported they would like to have additional medicines information about drug-drug interactions (86 %) and adverse effects (63 %). Information was also needed about generic drugs. The majority of practical nurses in this study were satisfied with current medicines information sources. Additional information about pharmacological treatment was needed by respondents, 14 % daily and 31 % weekly. 82 % of respondents would benefit from pharmacy's services in their work. 64 % of practical nurses had always or usually and 28 % had never mobile device for information seeking. 73 % of practical nurses took part in education concerning pharmacological care less than once in one to two years. Package leaflets and Terveysportti were the most commonly utilized and preferred medicines information sources. There is still need for detailed information about practical nurses' medicines information sources in various working environments.