Perceptions of Clinical Nurses About the Causes of Medication Administration Errors: A Cross-Sectional Study

AIM: This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of nurses about the causes of medication administration errors and the rates of reporting errors made or witnessed by them. METHOD: This methodological, descriptive, multicenter, and cross-sectional study sample of this study included 590 clinical nurses working in an inpatient setting in Turkey. The data were collected using the Medication Administration Error Reporting Survey, which is a self-report questionnaire. RESULTS: In the study, it was determined that insufficient number of nurses, heavy workloads, and illegible medication orders of physicians were the most common causes leading to medication errors as stated by the nurses. Moreover, 26.1% of the nurses reported that they had made an medication error, and more than half of the nurses reported that they had witnessed medication errors. It was found that 68.8% of medication errors were not reported. CONCLUSION: It is important to determine the nurses’ perceptions about the causes of medication errors to prevent repetition of medication errors and to establish standards for medication safety. Therefore, it may be recommended to reduce workloads of nurses and develop methods to increase the rate of reporting medication errors.