Reflecting on intravenous drug administration: towards safer practice

Neonatal drug administration errors continue to be an escalating problem within NICUs. A strategy to enhance learning and hopefully reduce the number of adverse incidents reported was needed. A literature review was found to be of limited benefit in identifying tools to enable clinical staff to implement risk reduction. A locally developed education programme was successfully implemented resulting in a reduction in the number of intravenous drug administration errors. This article will share the evolution and implementation of this strategy in order to move towards safer practice.