View article

Purpose: This study aims to identify and compare the relevance of barriers that nurses in nursing homes experience in medication management in Belgium.

Design: The mixed‐method study started with an expert meeting in November 2008 and was followed by a cross‐sectional survey in February–March 2009, questioning 246 nurses and 270 nurse assistants in 20 nursing homes.

Methods: Twelve nurses represented nursing homes in an expert meeting and listed all barriers that might cause suboptimal medication management. Based on the results, a survey was developed in which respondents could indicate whether they were involved in a particular stage of the medication process and if yes, rate the relevance of the barriers in that stage on a continuous scale, varying from 1 =no barrier to 10 =strong barrier. Barriers scored 7 or more were defined as strong.

Findings: Nurses experienced a large number of …