Perceptions of Clinical Nurses About the Causes of Medication Administration Errors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

AIM: This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of nurses about the causes of medication administration errors and therates of reporting errors made or witnessed by them.METHOD: This methodological, descriptive, multicenter, and cross-sectional study sample of this study included 590 clinical nursesworking in an inpatient setting in Turkey. The data were collected using the Medication Administration Error Reporting Survey, whichis a self-report questionnaire.RESULTS: In the study, it was determined that insufficient number of nurses, heavy workloads, and illegible medication orders ofphysicians were the most common causes leading to medication errors as stated by the nurses. Moreover, 26.1% of the nurses reportedthat they had made an medication error, and more than half of the nurses reported that they had witnessed medication errors. It wasfound that 68.8% of medication errors were not reported.CONCLUSION: It is important to determine the nurses’ perceptions about the causes of medication errors to prevent repetition ofmedication errors and to establish standards for medication safety. Therefore, it may be recommended to reduce workloads of nursesand develop methods to increase the rate of reporting medication errors.