Causes, reporting, and prevention of medication errors from a pediatric nurse perspective

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the perspective of pediatric nurses regarding the causes, reporting, and prevention of medication errors. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional study. Setting: Nurses were selected from inpatient pediatric wards of 4 hospitals in Turkey. Subjects: 119 pediatric nurses agreed to participate in the research and completed semi-structured questionnaires. These data were collected and analyzed. The average age of the nurses was 24.7 ± 3.58 years; the majority was women (96.6%). Results: Pediatric nurses stated that the most common causes of medication errors were long work hours (68.1%) and a high patient/nurse ratio (58.8%). Although the majority of nurses (88%) made use of a medication error notification system, many errors were not reported and nurses cited potential blaming of nurses in case of adverse outcome for the patient (52.95%), loss of trust (50.45%), and fear of disciplinary proceedings (42%) among the causes of lack of notification. With regard to avoidance, nurses most commonly cited the need for adequate information regarding the safe use of medications (45.4%). Conclusions: This is the first study in Turkey to address the pediatric nurse perspective regarding medication errors. The results argue that there is a need for ongoing training of pediatric nurses concerning safe medication administration and that the causes and underreporting of medication errors warrant further investigation.