Developing a Medication Administration Observation Checklist: Key Insights for Standardized Reporting Methodology.

Background: Medication administration incidents are a significant patient safety concern in health care, often driven by human and work system factors which contribute to errors.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a medication administration observation checklist tool tailored for a pediatric tertiary care center in Atlantic Canada.

Methods: We synthesized existing evidence on methodologies for observational tools in medication administration by nurses. Next, we engaged nursing knowledge users in Think Aloud sessions to iteratively refine the checklist's items.

Results: We share the development of a medication administration observation checklist tool. This process incorporated valuable feedback from frontline nurses and nurse managers, ensuring the checklist's relevance and usability in clinical practice.

Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of co-developing data collection tools with interdisciplinary teams, leveraging theoretical frameworks to capture complexities in workflow, and enhancing transparency in reporting methodologies to support replicability across diverse clinical contexts.