ArticleBMC health services research2025
Who understands and how? - exploring nurses' perceptions of the readability and usability of instructions written by hospital pharmacists.
Article in BMC health services research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundClear and precise instructions are essential for high-quality medication management. This study focuses on identifying usability and functionality of instructional materials on medicine handling and use produced by hospital pharmacists. The secondary aim is to provide recommendations for hospital pharmacists on writing instructional texts.
methodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses who read and used medication-related instructions written by hospital pharmacists in a large tertiary hospital in Finland. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis, incorporating an applied linguistic analysis of the grammatical and structural features of the Finnish-language instructional texts. The analysis focused on the nurses' instruction-reading practices, identifying both problems and well-functioning dimensions of the texts, and proposing improvements for this type of communication between healthcare professionals.
resultsThe interviewed nurses (n = 9) consistently found the instructions somewhat challenging, primarily due to their length, complex structure and limited accessibility. While the interviewees stated that the instructions did not present personal difficulties, they expressed concern that other staff in the ward might struggle with the instructions. According to the interviews, readability problems can be mitigated using visual support. Linguistic features such as terminology and the interpretation of impersonal grammatical structures (e.g., passive voice) related to the division of labor were not seen as problematic for the interviewees. The usability of the instructions was enhanced by effective communication with the hospital pharmacists.
conclusionWhen producing instructions for staff on the wards, it is important to focus on both internal text features, such as the use of graphics and consistent terminology, as well as external factors, like easy access communication between hospital pharmacists and ward staff.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.