The Prevalence, Barriers to Medication Error Reports, and Perceptions of Nurses toward the Causes of Medication Errors in the Hospitals Affiliated to North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Background & Aims: Medication errors are major healthcare concerns across the world, which cause mortality and physical and psychological complications in patients, their families, and the community every year. Considering the key role of nurses in direct patient care, the present study aimed to investigate the prevalence, barriers to medication error reports, and influential factors in medication errors in the viewpoint of nurses. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 140 nurses employed in the teaching hospitals in Bojnurd, Iran in 2017. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of four sections, including the demographic data, evaluation of the type of medication errors, cause of not reporting medication errors, and their influential factors. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16. Results: The most important causes of medication errors included ward-related factors (3.40±0.69), factors related to nursing management (3.31±0.91), and nurse-related factors (3.16±0.78). In addition, the most important cause of not reporting medication errors was the process of error reports. Significant associations were also observed between the demographic characteristics of the nurses, medication errors, medication protocols, nurse-related factors, ward-related factors, fear of the consequences of error reporting, factors related to the error report process, and fear of the managerial factors. Conclusion: Considering that most medication errors were correlated with ward-related and managerial factors, nursing managers must focus on correcting the influential processes in medication errors and their reporting, simultaneously seeking strategies to control and mitigate these errors.