Background: Antibiotic skin test(AST) is very useful in the diagnosis for preventing immediate allergic reactions. Although it is a safe and widespread method, it is performed very diversely by doctors and nurses without consistency and it differs from countries and hospitals, too. This study takes aims to evaluate the current practice of AST by nurses in Korea and to compare it with the general guidelines.
Methods: During the period from January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2013, three research designs and question development have been conducted. One research was Questionnaire to the nurses of the University Hospitals that were randomly selected(University Hospitals'' N=276, and Medical center''s N=19). The others were two actual surveys on antibiotic skin testing conducted by the nurses of a University Hospital(N=130). Questionnaire and surveillance sheets were distributed from January 15, 2013 to January 31, 2013 and asked to given completely from February 1, 2013 to February 22, 2013. First actual survey data were collected from February 19, 2013 to March 8, 2013. Second actual survey data were collected from May 9, 2013 to May 20, 2013 after IRB approval. During the period from March 1, 2013 to May 20, 2013, the Questionnaire were collected back and two actual survey were finished. The analysis and evaluation of them were carried out.
Results: The Questionnaire''s collection rate was 97.6% and two actual survey cases were 130. There were clear differences between this study and the general guidelines, such as the method of skin test(without skin prick test), the selection of examination subject, the test drugs, concentration, volume and interpretation of AST. However, manufactured standard concentration antibiotic solution of AST showed the consistency of concentration in a certain degree. AST conducted by nurses was very variable and inconsistent. Even nurses who work in the same wards and hospitals, their methods of AST differed each other.
Conclusion: Although the general guidelines which have been published by some countries including Korea, these are not a great help to nurses because these are a lack of details and consideration for nurses in the clinical setting and a lack of propagation and education. Standardized guideline for nurses should be published and it should be safe, clear, comfortable and easily accessible. Furthermore, Antibiotic Solutions to standardize skin test will be more developed and manufactured. First of all, hospitals need to compare theirs antibiotic skin test with standard guidelines for patient''s safety, and have to strive to keep it.