Reliability of High-Alert Medications Questionnaire in Turkish Healthcare Professionals

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability of the High Alert Medications (HAM) Questionnaire in Turkish healthcare professionals. Methods: This methodological study was conducted between December 2017 and January 2018 in a private university hospital. The healthcare professionals, including nurses, health service technicians, and pharmacists, who are older than 18 years old were eligible for this study. After following the appropriate translation and cultural adaptation process, the internal consistency of the HAM Questionnaire using the Kuder-Richardson 20 coefficient and test-retest reliability was evaluated. Results: Among 146 healthcare professionals, the mean age was 25.40 +/- 5.16 years, wherein 76% were females. Most participants were nurses (69.9%) and other healthcare professionals were health service technicians (28.1%) and pharmacists (2.0%). The mean total score of the HAM Questionnaire was 70.00 +/- 19.50. The KuderRichardson 20 was 0.815. A statistically significant correlation was found between the scores of the HAM Questionnaire at baseline and after 15 days, which confirmed the test-retest reliability (r=0.527; p<0.01). A statistically significant correlation was found between the HAM Questionnaire score and advanced age (r=0.310; p<0.001) and higher professional year (r=0.445; p<0.001). Conclusion: The Turkish version of the HAM Questionnaire could be used to assess healthcare professionals' knowledge about high-alert medications.