The Impact of Nurse-Pharmacist Partnerships for Medication Safety in Hospitals: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The growing burden of chronic illness in adults in the community is increasing the complexity of medication regimen management, with the resulting medication-related harm. Polypharmacy, transitions of care, and multiple health professionals are among the factors responsible for medication discrepancies that compromise patient safety. Interprofessional collaboration, patient empowerment, and individually tailored interventions by nurse and pharmacist partnerships are promising responses to these problems. The current scoping review synthesizes evidence from 60 peer-reviewed studies to provide an overview of the manner in which nurses and pharmacist partnerships enhance medication safety. The findings highlight the contribution of medication reconciliation, patient education, and monitoring of clinical parameters in avoiding adverse events. The emerging themes include the creation of new care models, complementary professional functions, cost-effectiveness, heterogeneity of strategies for evaluation, as well as team coherence problems. The implications for practice, research, and policy are shaped by process standardization, enhanced communication, and system support for optimizing medication safety in community care.