Kohlmann, Keri Q

Introduction: Patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) acquire or continue an average of five medications specific to their intervention during hospitalization, some of which are continued for life. It has been identified that poor communication between health care professionals and patients is a contributor to medication nonadherence. The aim of this quality improvement project was to determine if the implementation of individualized medication education forms and patient-centered medication training would improve nurse-patient medication communication. Methods: Project interventions were implemented on a post-PCI telemetry unit from December 2020 to February 2021. Patients with acute coronary syndrome requiring PCI during hospitalization were surveyed on five domains at the time of discharge from October 2020 to February 2021. The five domains included: 1) medication communication 2) confidence in medication name recall 3) ability to manage medications 4) understanding of medication purposes and 5) side effect management. Results: A total of 53 patients were included in this analysis, with 28 in the pre-intervention group and 25 in the post-intervention group. Comparatively, patients in the post-intervention group reported a subjective improvement in medication communication, confidence in recalling medication names, ability to manage medications, and understanding of medication purposes and side effects when compared to patients in the pre-intervention group. Conclusion: The use of multidimensional, standardized medication education forms and medication training positively impacted medication communication between nursing and post-PCI patients.