The Main Reasons of Medication Errors and Barriers of Reporting in the North West Bank Governmental Hospitals: Nursing Perspective رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

Background: Medication administration errors happen at different stages in the medication use process, including prescribing, provision, and administration. Such errors may be associated with healthcare professionals‘ practices or techniques, products or drugs, and systems, including prescriptions, labeling, miscommunication, packaging, and nomenclature, assembling, distributing, and administration. Objective: This study aims to assess nurses‘ perceptions towards the reasons for medication administration errors and barriers to reporting in the North West Bank governmental hospitals. Methods: A cross- sectional descriptive study composed of two hundred and eightyfive nurses from governmental hospitals in Palestine's North West Bank participated in the study. The study was conducted through a questionnaire developed by the researchers Results: The response rate was 95%, and 15.4% of participants had MAEs in general and 27.3% of them reported MAEs in Palestine. The main reasons for medication administration errors were high workload (4.79±0.56), high patient to nurse ratio on wards/units (4.7263± 0.64), and inadequate knowledge about the drug (4.69± 0.65). Also, the main barriers to reporting MAEs among nurses in Palestine in this study were personal factors (3.97±0.6), reporting system process (3.95±0.62), and administrative factors (3.74±0.6). Conclusion: The main reasons for medication administration errors were high workload, high patient-to-nurse ratio on wards/units, and inadequate knowledge about vi the drug. However, the factors that were considered as the main barriers to reporting medication administration errors among nurses in Palestine in this study were personal factors, reporting system process, and administrative factors.