Survey of Nursing Perceptions of Medication Administration Practices, Perceived Sources of Errors and Reporting Behaviours

Abstract

In January 2003, St. Mary's Hospital Center in Montreal, Quebec, established an interdisciplinary Committee on the Systematic Approach to Medication Error Control to review the whole process of medication administration within the hospital and to develop a systematic approach to medication error control. A cross-sectional survey on medication administration practices, perceived sources of errors and medication error reporting of nurses, adapted from a nursing practice survey and medication variance report (Sim and Joyner 2002), was conducted over a two-week period in February 2004. The results were analyzed by years of experience (greater or less than five years) and patient care unit of practice. The perceived source of error most often cited was transcription (processing), and the second most frequently cited source was the legibility of handwritten medication orders (prescribing).The results demonstrate no significant difference in medication safety practices or in perceptions of errors by years of experience. Nurses appear to adapt to the safety culture of the unit rather quickly, certainly within their first five years on the unit. Good medication error reporting behaviour was noted, with no differences between all comparative groups within both years of experience and unit of practice. Quality improvement initiatives to improve the safety of medication administration practices have included the development of a nursing medication administration handbook, the revision of policies and procedures related to medication administration safety, the standardization of solutions and limited variety of high-risk medication dosages and the reduction of handwritten reorders. The need for ongoing education and information sessions on policies and procedures specific to safe medication practices for all nurses, regardless of years of experience, was identified.

Nurses' Experiences toward Perception of Medication Administration Errors Reporting

“…This means that all nurses are equally vulnerable to experience errors regardless of their age or years of experience, as well as they didn't protect from incurring medication errors. The same findings were reported by Armutlu et al (2008) (45) . In contrast, the study of Flor et al (2012) (46) and Zein Eldin and Abd Elaal (2013) (47) found that working experience of nurses is an important factor that affects general medication errors, in which nurses who have worked more years are less prone to having wrong time errors as compared to nurses who have less working experience.…”

Erros Na Administração De Medicamentos: Evidências E Implicações Na Segurança Do Paciente

“…A execução desta anotação antes da medicação é um risco, posto que o paciente possa recusar a droga, assim como o esquecimento de registrar pode causar uma nova administração do fármaco por outro profissional, resultando em danos e agravos à saúde do paciente (51) . Apesar deste fato, o presente estudo verificou que 40,0% (n=16) (10,12,(21)(22)(24)(25)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)33,(35)(36)43,56) dos artigos analisados abordaram a ocorrência do erro documental no processo de AM.…”

How to change nurses’ behavior leading to medication administration errors using a survey approach in United Christian Hospital

“…It would be questioned to many managerial staff why nurses performed these kinds of behaviour during medication administration. Several studies conducted to develop a systematic approach to medication error control but only focused on the revision of policies, procedures related to medication administration safety, other systematic improvement and using medication chart review and incident reports [20,21] . There is no study to point out what nurses actually behaved in the process of medication administration.…”