Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of intern doctors to medication prescribing errors in a Nigeria tertiary hospital

Abstract

Context:Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting.Aims:The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them.Settings and Design:A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria.Subjects and Methods:Respondents gave information about their experience with prescribing medicines, the extent to which they agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error and events that constituted such. Their experience with prescribing certain categories of medicines was also sought.Statistical Analysis Used:Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17 (SPSS Inc Chicago, Ill, USA). Chi-squared analysis contrasted differences in proportions; P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results:The response rate was 90.9% and 27 (90%) had <1 year of prescribing experience. 17 (56.7%) respondents totally agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error. Most common reasons for prescribing mistakes were a failure to check prescriptions with a reference source (14, 25.5%) and failure to check for adverse drug interactions (14, 25.5%). Omitting some essential information such as duration of therapy (13, 20%), patient age (14, 21.5%) and dosage errors (14, 21.5%) were the most common types of prescribing errors made. Respondents considered workload (23, 76.7%), multitasking (19, 63.3%), rushing (18, 60.0%) and tiredness/stress (16, 53.3%) as important factors contributing to prescribing errors. Interns were least confident prescribing antibiotics (12, 25.5%), opioid analgesics (12, 25.5%) cytotoxics (10, 21.3%) and antipsychotics (9, 19.1%) unsupervised.Conclusions:Respondents seemed to have a low awareness of making prescribing errors. Principles of rational prescribing and events that constitute prescribing errors should be taught in the practice setting.

Prevalence and pattern of prescription errors in a Nigerian kidney hospital

“…For instance, in a study by Ajemigbetse et al, omission of duration of therapy and patient age were among the most common prescription errors made. 15 However, no matter how simple the error, it has been known to result in adverse drug reaction and mortality. 16 Mistaken identity in hospital settings has been linked to in-hospital morbidity and mortality.…”

“…In the study by Ross et al, pressures of time were thought to impact on safety practices such as checking prescriptions against the British National Formulary and returning to complete unfinished tasks. 7,15,17 Again, junior doctors (medical officers and house officers) often work in stressful circumstances that are perceived as routine by experienced doctors leaving them more prone to errors. 18,19 A wide range of errors (1.9 to 52.2%) was identified in this study.…”

Effect of educational intervention on the knowledge and attitude on prescribing amongst interns of a tertiary care hospital: a questionnaire based study

“…In a study done to assess the knowledge and attitudes of interns to medication prescribing errors in a Nigerian tertiary hospital it was found out that some essential information such as duration of therapy, patient age and dosage errors were the most common types of prescribing errors made. 7 All the prescriptions were rational except for one in which superfluous usage of Proton pump inhibitors was encountered which can be avoided. The same was then conversed to the Interns and advised not to overprescribe medicines.…”

Healthcare professionals' level of medication knowledge in Africa: a systematic review

“…Without specific disease focus (27 questions; 6 papers). Six papers (14%) with 27 medication-related knowledge questions did not have a specific disease focus (grouped under 'other' in Table 2) [16,18,[75][76][77][78]. Questions were more general including self-medication, topical medications (antipain and antibiotics), dose calculation and prescribing errors.…”