Perceptions of Nurses about Medication Errors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to assess nurses’ perception of medication errors nurses in Maternity and Child Hospital in Najran city, Saudi Arabia. Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Subjects and Methods: This descriptive study was carried out among 72 nurses in Maternity and child Hospital in Najran city, Saudi Arabia. Data were collected through a questionnaire, consisting of two parts: Part 1 covers demographical data, which includes age, gender, educational level, and years of experience and place of work in the hospital. Part 2 of the questionnaire consists of (23) questions about the nurses' perception of the causes, reporting medication error, and perceptions of barriers to reporting medication errors. Data were analyzed by using a statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20. Results: The results of the study indicate that most of the participants had a good perception of the causes of medication errors. Nevertheless, the data analysis showed that many of the participants had reporting medication errors. More importantly, the participants indicated that there exist multiple barriers to reporting medication errors. Two-thirds of them had moderate barriers to concerns over the consequences of reporting. More than half of them had minor barriers to blaming nurses if patients are harmed, while, about one-quarter of them had major barriers to fear of punishment. There was no statistically significant relationship between the studied nurses’ perception of the causes of medication errors and their characteristics (P value > 0.05). Conclusions: It is concluded that nurses at Maternity and Child Hospital in Najran city, Saudi Arabia, Had a good perception of the causes of medication errors. In addition, there was no statistically significant relationship between the participants’ reporting medication errors and their characteristics except age and years of experience.