Medications Errors and Health-Related Quality of Life of Nursing Professionals in Intensive Care Units

Abstract

This study identifies the prevalence of medication errors in ICUs reported by nursing professionals, compares the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and health status changes of those professionals both involved and not involved with medication errors in ICUs. A total of 94 nursing professionals in three ICUs of a private hospital were studied: 39 (41.5%) nurses and 55 (58.5%) nursing technicians. HRQoL was assessed through the Portuguese version of the SF-36 instrument. Eighteen professionals (19.1%) reported medication errors during the month prior to data collection. The errors were reported in 61.1% of the cases and the most frequent ones were those in the administration phase (67.8%). The professionals who reported medication errors displayed worse health conditions than those who did not report errors.