Evaluation of Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours About Rational Drug Use in a Public Hospital

Objective: drug expenditures of turkey are increasing much more than the world average and it is not parallel with our country’s disease burden. this situation requires focusing about the rational drug use. the aim of the study was to determine the steps to be taken by examining the knowledge and behavior about rational drug use of nurses. material-method: the study was conducted in a public hospital between 08.12.2016-26.01.2017. a questionnaire that consisting 18 questions was applied to the nurses who wanted to participate the research and 392 usable surveys were obtained. thus, it has been reached the 70.6% of total study universe (555). descriptive statistics and chi-square test was used for analyzing the data. results: according to the results of the study, most of nurses consult to physician-pharmacist (84.4%) and colleagues (54.1%) for the information about drugs. it was determined in the study that the most common drug administration errors were administering the drugs at incorrect time (66.3%) and skipping the medication dosages (57.7%). there is a statistically significance between the education levels and the rates of reporting adverse reactions of nurses (p<0.001). it was determined that the rate of interrogation of drug and food allergies was significantly higher in the nurses that working in services when compared with other departments (p<0.001). conclusions: it has been observed that there is a general awareness in nurses about rational use of drugs. it was determined that need for training especially about adverse drug reactions, drug interactions and special situations such as pregnancy, paediatrics and organ failures.