frequency of medication errors and its reporting according to self- report by nurses in hospitals of khoy city

frequency of medication errors and its reporting according to self- report by nurses in hospitals of khoy city shams sh[1], bagherieh f[2], feizi a[3], baghaei r[4], hashemlo l[5] received: 4 may , 2012 accepted: 19 jun , 2012  abstract:background & aims: medication errors are one of the important challenges of health care systems worldwide. it is also one of the threatening factors of patient safety. for this reason, medication error rate is used as one of the patient safety indicators. the aim of this study was to determine the frequency of medication error and its reporting, according to self- report by nurses in hospitals of khoy in 2011.materials & methods: this study was a descriptive research. the study population included all nursing staffs of khoy hospitals (n= 350). a questionnaire was used to gather the data about the perspectives of nurses on the frequency of medication errors and its reporting. descriptive and analytical statistical analyses were performed with spss 16 software.result:the frequency of medication errors and its reporting were 28.9% and 14.4%, respectively. the most common types of medication error that reported were concomitant administration of oral drugs with potential interaction (57.7%), wrong rate error (46.34%), and giving pain medications without a physician's prescription (44.39%). there were a statistically significant relationship between medication error rate and age group (p= 0.035). medication errors occurred most frequently among nurses with 20-30-years age. there were also a significant relationship among medication errors and working hours (p=0.023) and participation in retraining courses (p= 0.033). there was a significant relationship between medication errors and its reporting rate (p= 0.000).conclusion:according to our findings, reduction in medication errors can be achieved by reducing the nurses’ work hours and holding retraining courses. in this study, a low report of medication errors has been revealed. establishing an efficient recording and reporting system of medication errors along with minimization of barriers to reporting them may reduce the risk of medication errors.keywords:patient safety, medication error, self- report, nurse address: nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, irantel:(+98) 441 2754961email: [email protected] [1]lecturer, faculty of nursing and midwifery, urmia university of medical sciences(corresponding author)*[2]nursing student urmia university of medical sciences[3]assistant professor, faculty of nursing and midwifery, urmia university of medical sciences[4]assistant professor, faculty of nursing and midwifery, urmia university of medical sciences[5]nursing student urmia university of medical sciences