Association of medication administration errors with interruption among nurses in public sector tertiary care hospitals.

Raja - ,Badil - ,Shaheen Sherali ,Sajid Ali

doi:10.12669/pjms.35.5.287

Abstract

Objectives:To determine the association of medication administration errors with interruption among nurses working at public sector tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan.Methods:An analytical cross-sectional study was accomplished at two public sector healthcare facilities Civil Hospital, and Dow University Hospital, Karachi. The study was carried out from October 2017 to July 2018 over a period of 10 months. The sample was calculated by using OpenEpi version 3.0. By taking 56.4% of medication administration errors, 5% margin of error and 95% confidence level. The calculated sample size was 204 of both genders. The subjects both male and female nurses having a valid license from Pakistan Nursing Council and one year of clinical experience were enrolled in the study. The subjects were approached by using non-probability purposive sampling method. Validated and adapted questionnaire utilized to gather the data. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 21.0.Results:In this study, total 204 nurses were included, almost half (52%) of them were male. Majority of (82.3%) study participants had age between 25-35 years old. There were total 716 medications given by 204 nurses. Out of these, 295 (41.2%) were antibiotics, other common medications were acid-suppressive, analgesic and antiemetic 14.5%, 15.9% and 11.2% respectively. Among all 716 medications, 644 (89.9%) were given intravenously whereas only 6.7% drugs given orally. A significant association has been found between medication administration errors and interruption like talking with other health care personnel, patients or attendant queries, phone calls (p-value=<0.001). Nearly 91% of the study nurses who were interrupted during medication committed medication errors.Conclusion:It is concluded that there is a significant association between medication administration errors with interruption among nurses.

Highlights

In every health care sector, a large number of medications are administered to the patients every day
It is documented by current research that interruptions and distractions are the major risk factors which are contributing to medication administration errors.[3]
Current research studies have confirmed that interruptions at

Summary

Introduction

In every health care sector, a large number of medications are administered to the patients every day. In this whole process medication errors are most common.[1] The process of medication in the hospital setup comprises of five phases including medication prescription, preparation, dispensation, administration and monitorization. Each phase of this process may cause risk for medication errors.[2] it is documented by current research that interruptions and distractions are the major risk factors which are contributing to medication administration errors.[3] current research studies have confirmed that interruptions at

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion