Evaluation of Self-Report of Medication Errors and its Barriers in Pediatric Wards

Abstract

Introduction: Medication administration is considered as one of the most common and critical tasks for nurses. Identifying the rate and barriers of self-reporting medication errors is essential to maintain patient safety and improve the quality of nursing care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the self-report of medication errors in pediatric wards and its barriers from a nursing viewpoint. Methods: In this cross-sectional and correlational study, 148 nurses of Bahrami children's hospitals and Children's Medical Center affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected using the census method, during year 2015. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire including demographic information, the incidence of medication errors and barriers to underreporting of medication errors. To ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient for Internal Consistency was calculated. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 software. Results: Overall, 112 (76%) nurses confessed medication errors during their last year of work and only 28% of the them had self-reported medication errors. Furthermore, 88% of nurses had experienced barriers to self-reporting medication errors and the incidence of medication errors (injectable and non-injectable) was 89%. The most common errors were associated with using abbreviated names of drugs and nominal similarities of some drugs with some others. The most common barriers to reporting medication errors were associated with nurses' fear of the effect of the errors on the patients, blood money payment, and impact on annual evaluation after reporting. The logistic regression model showed no significant relationships between the incidence of the medication errors and the nurses' gender (P = 0.19), age (P = 0.065), job experience (P = 1.21), employment status (P = 0.81) and education (P = 0.59) and showed a significant relationship between shifts and the incidence of the medication errors (P = 0.004). Conclusions: Given that the majority of medication errors were not reported by the nurses, it is needed to create necessary settings to facilitate and increase reporting of medication errors. Creating a positive relationship between the managers and the nurses and providing an appropriate atmosphere at the time of reporting is suggested.