Author's accepted version (post-print).This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Alteren, J., Hermstad, M., White, J. & Jordan, S. (2018). Conflicting priorities: Observation of medicine administration. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(19-20), 3613-3621, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14518. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Available from 19/05/2019.