Patient safety is a significant challenge facing healthcare systems today. An important part of patient safety is the issue of medication administration within the acute-care setting that has long been the focus of scrutiny and research because it contributes directly to patient morbidity and mortality. The present study aimed to :)1) Assess nurses’ perceptions about reasons why medication errors occur. )2) Collect the percent of medication errors that actually reported by nurses. Methods: In this descriptive study, 100 nurses who worked in Damanhur National Medical Institute, and data were collected by means of a researcher modify questionnaire including demographic attributes (age, gender, working experience, etc), and contributing factors in medication errors. Result: more than half (59%) unit staff level are inadequate, about third of the sample (64%) long shift/over time and less than (44%) was the nurse miscalculates the dose. The highly rank for reason of why medication errors occur is the highly percentage weight at the Administrative related reason at response by nursing administration do not match the severity of the error about (82%). Conclusion: Medication administration error occurrences among nurses are often underreported. Administrative barriers and fear were found to be the top two reasons for not reporting medication administration errors among nurses. Significantly this study found, the highly reason for Long shift/over time was about and the less percentage was from Physicians medication orders are not legible and difficult to read prescribing. Recommendation: Provide continuous in-service educational programs on quality and safety which are required for nurses to maintain safe work environment. |
