Master of Science in Nursing Theses

Date Degree Awarded

8-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.)

School

Nursing

Committee Chair

Carrie Keib, Ph.D., RN

Second Committee Member

Marty Eng, Pharm.D.

Keywords

potentially inappropriate medication, potential prescription omissions, STOPP/START Criteria, Beers Criteria, adverse drug reactions

Abstract

Problem: Selecting appropriate medications for the aging population is challenging considering the number of chronic illnesses, prescriptions, and healthcare providers involved in their care, not to mention age related changes that impact pharmacokinetics.

Significance: Inappropriate medications in geriatric patients can lead to adverse drug reactions (ADR). Medication review tools can assist in the identification of potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) to avoid or closely monitor and prevent ADRs.

Purpose: Describe and compare the application of select sections of the STOPP (Screening Tool of Older Persons Prescriptions) /START (Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment) and Beers Criteria in a geriatric population. Specific aims include describing and comparing: 1) the rate of PIM identified by sections of the Beers and STOPP Criteria, 2) the rate of potential prescription omissions (PPO) identified by a section of the START Criteria, 3) the most common PIM or PPO drug classes identified, 4) those with polypharmacy (>5 medications), and 5) the time for criteria application.

Design: Retrospective descriptive, comparative chart review.

Results: A total of 468 medications were prescribed, an average of 7.43 per patient, with 73.02% of patients with polypharmacy. Beers Criteria identified 32 PIM in 39.7% while STOPP Criteria identified 67 PIM in 58.7%. There was a high statistical difference between the number of PIM identified by the STOPP Criteria compared to the Beers Criteria (P=0.01). A total of 16 PPO were identified with START Criteria in 17.5%.

DOI

10.15385/tmsn.2013.1

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Catalog Record

Included in

Nursing Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.