보건소 방문간호사의 노인 약물교육 수행도와 중요도 인식

Visiting Nurses' Performance and Importance of Medication Education for the Elderly in Public Health Center

Purpose: This study investigated the performance of visiting nurses employed in public health centers in providing information about medications among elderly. Methods:The subjects included were visiting nurses working in public health centers located in Daegu, Gyungbuk, and Gyungnam regions. Data collection was done by distributing 215 questionnaires via mail from March 29 to April 18 in 2010. There were 173 questionnaires collated and SPSS WIN 15.0 was utilized for data analysis. Result:The conduct of the study revealed that visiting nurses were providing information about the use of therapeutic drugs from time to time, and the performance of medication education was 2.19 point. The name of the drug, purpose, right time and cautions to consider in taking the medications were the main contents of medication education. The importance of visiting nurse's medication education was 3.15 point, which appeared relatively higher than the performance of drug education. The educational contents in which the importance of drug education was noted to be high were purpose of medication, medication time, side effects of medication, and cautions in taking medicine. Conclusion:The results of this study will provide the basis for developing standardized educational materials about medications. It would also serve as basis for formulation of programs suitable for the elders at home in order to increase the performance as well as policies that can strengthen visiting nurses' abilities on medication education for the elderly.