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Background: The intensive care unit (ICU) brings together high-risk patients and interventions in a complex environment. Based on this consideration, medication administration error is the most common type of error that occurs in ICUs. Literature confirms that human factors (lack of knowledge, poor practices and negative attitudes) of nurses are the main contributors to the occurrence of medication administration errors in ICUs., Aim: To examine and compare the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour scores on medication administration error according to nurses' sociodemographic and professional variables., Study Design: This is a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional international study based on a survey. Descriptive statistics were computed for all items of the questionnaire. Non-parametric tests (Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U tests) were used to carry out the comparison between groups., Results: The international sample consisted of 1383 nurses in 12 different countries. Statistically significant changes were seen in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour scores among several subgroups of the international population. Eastern nurses were more likely to show adequate knowledge about medication administration error prevention than Western nurses; concurrently, Western nurses were significantly more likely to show positive attitudes than Eastern nurses. No statistically significant differences in the behaviour scale were found in this study., Conclusions: The findings show a difference between knowledge and attitudes in relation to cultural background., Relevance to Clinical Practice: Decision makers in ICUs should consider cultural background when planning and implementing prevention strategies for medication administration errors. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of educational systems on the decrease of the incidence of medication administration errors in ICU., (© 2023 British Association of Critical Care Nurses.)

Objective: The aim of the study was to explore the degree of agreement of intensive care unit nurses working on a set of medication error preventive strategies and to examine possible predictors of nurses' knowledge, attitude and behavior., Materials and Methods: Observational, international, and cross-sectional study. Iran, Malta, Spain, Pakistan, Nepal, Qatar, Ecuador, Australia, Finland, Italy, Egypt, and Jordan were the countries included in this survey. To collect data, the Knowledge, Attitude and Behavior in Medication Errors questionnaire was used. A descriptive statistical analysis was performed for the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample and three multiple logistic regressions were performed., Results: The international sample consists of 1383 nurses, of whom 478 (34.6%) were men and 900 (65.1%) were women and their mean age was 35.61 years with a range of 19-61. Descriptive statistics conducted on the international sample show a medium to high degree of agreement among participants concerning some preventive strategies of medication error. In addition, the results of the present study show a strong relationship between positive nurses' attitudes and correct behaviors and/or adequate knowledge, as well as between adequate knowledge and correct behaviors (p< 0.01)., Conclusions: Further studies are needed to explore the issue of medication error concerning nurses' cultural backgrounds, as well as to assess similarities and disparities among international nurses.

Medication errors during drug administration represent a current issue in intensive care units due to the complexity of patients, the large quantity of drugs administered intravenously, the frequent prescription changes and frenetic activities in an emergency setting. The aim of this review is to increase knowledge about prevention and types of medication errors in intensive care units. The review was conducted using the following biomedical databases: PubMed, Cinahl, and Google Scholar. A total of 40 studies were considered useful for research purposes. Most studies showed a higher prevalence of medication errors in complex and intensive care settings. Although there are several different strategies aimed at preventing and reducing errors, available literature data show that a multimodal and multidimensional approach is required to make their use effective.