The Factors Affecting the Refusal of Reporting on Medication Errors from the Nurses' Viewpoints: A Case Study in a Hospital in Iran

Abstract

Objective. Medication errors are the most common types of medical errors which considerably endanger the patient safety. This survey aimed to study the factors influencing not reporting on medication errors from the nurses' viewpoints in Abbasi Hospital of Miandoab, Iran. Methods. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study conducted in 2012 in which all nurses (n = 100) working in different inpatient units were studied using a consensus method. Required data were collected using a questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed through some statistical tests including Independent t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square. Results. According to the results, the most important reasons for not reporting on medication errors were related to the managerial factors (3.56 ± 0.996), factors related to the process of reporting (3.32 ± 0.797), and fear of the consequences of reporting (3.01 ± 1.039), respectively. Also, there was a significant relationship between employment status and fear of the Consequences of reporting on medication errors (P < 0.008). Conclusion. This study results showed that managerial factors had the greatest role in the refusal of reporting on medication errors. Therefore, for example, establishing a mechanism to improve quality rather than focus only on finding the culprits and blaming them can result in improving the patient safety.

Quantifying behavioural determinants relating to health professional reporting of medication errors: a cross-sectional survey using the Theoretical Domains Framework

“…While several others have also noted fear of reporting for various reasons [3][4][5]8], this is the first study which has used behaviour theories and also quantified scores. Interestingly, the only significant differences in scores were in terms of years of registration (greater experience most positive) and age (older most positive) but with no differences in terms of gender or profession.…”

“…A number of studies have employed a cross-sectional survey methodology to determine aspects of views, attitudes and experiences of health professionals around medication error reporting [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Most were conducted in the US [5,6,8] and Australia [4,7] with one each in the United Kingdom (UK) [9], Taiwan [10] and Iran [3].…”

“…Most were conducted in the US [5,6,8] and Australia [4,7] with one each in the United Kingdom (UK) [9], Taiwan [10] and Iran [3]. All were based in hospital; five included nurses only [3][4][5]8,10], two were of doctors and nurses [6,7] and one of doctors, nurses and pharmacists [9].…”

“…The number of respondents varied from 43 (16% response rate) [8] to 1384 (no response rate stated) [4]. Findings focused largely on barriers towards reporting: fear of adverse consequences following reporting [3][4][5]8,10]; disagreement over error identification [4,5,8]; managerial factors [3,10]; aspects of knowledge and awareness [7,9]; lack of feedback [7]; and training [6]. One key limitation of all studies is the lack of attention to behavioural theory, which may diminish the value of the findings in the development of interventions to optimise medication error reporting.…”

Bireylerin Tıbbi Hatalarla İlgili Görüş ve Deneyimleri

“…Bu çalışmada bireylerin yarısından fazlası hata yapanların dava edilmesi ve yapılan hataların hastaya açıklanması, yaklaşık yarısı ise hata yapan kişi ya da kişilerin iş yerinden uzaklaştırılması gerektiğini belirtmişlerdir. Ancak sağlık çalışanları, durumun siciline işlenmesi, çalışma arkadaşları ve yönetici hemşirelerden tepki alma ve işini kaybetme gibi cezalandırıcı eylemler nedeniyle meydana gelen tıbbi hataları açıklamamaktadır [3,[19][20][21]. Bireyleri cezalandıran geleneksel tutum yerine hataların raporlanmasını ve hastalara açıklanmasını teşvik etmek önleme girişimlerinin belirlenmesinde etkili olacaktır.…”