Vol. 8, Issue 6 (2019)

Author(s):
Naorem Jiteswori Devi and Dr. Veena Sakhardande

Abstract:
Anticoagulants, which are considered “high alert medications,” can often lead to adverse drug events in the inpatient and outpatient healthcare setting if not managed appropriately. High alert medications refer to drugs that have an increased risk of causing significant harm when used in error. Many of anticoagulation-associated adverse effects result from medication errors, suggesting they are preventable. A non-experimental descriptive study was conducted to assess the knowledge regarding anticoagulation therapy among patients attending cardiac clinics of Pune city. The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge regarding anticoagulation therapy, to find out the association of knowledge with selected demographic variables. The research study was based on “Health Belief Model”. A qualitative research approach was used. The design adopted for this study was non-experimental descriptive survey method. The total sample size was 200 cardiac patients. The tool used for data collection were demographic data which consists of socio-demographic data and clinical characteristics, assessment of the knowledge regarding anticoagulation therapy that is general knowledge on anticoagulation therapy and knowledge on anticoagulation drugs (warfarin, dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban).The data collected was analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Major findings of the study are 70% of the cardiac patients had average knowledge, 10% had good knowledge and 20% of them had poor knowledge regarding cardiac anticoagulation therapy. There is no statistically significant association between the knowledge with selected demographic variables. Hence the researcher concluded that concluded that there is great need for improving the knowledge among the patients. Researcher also recommends that Health education should be given at cardiac clinics for the patients in order to improve the knowledge and the patients should be encourage to gain knowledge through information booklet, television, peer group and internet.