Barriers Facing Nurses in Reporting Medication Administration Errors in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate nurses’ perceptions and the barriers that decrease the likelihood of reporting a medical administration error. Medication administration errors are a significant problem within the healthcare community and may be underreported or not reported due to a variety of factors. These may include personal perceptions, fear, misunderstanding of what constitutes an error, whether the significance of the error changes the requirement that all errors should be reported, and apprehension of the consequences for reporting and handling the error. This study included a quantitative survey of nurses in the KSA region and asked questions relating to their fears, perceptions, potential barriers, perceived barriers, and beliefs regarding medication administration errors. As was found, nurses underreport errors and may not consistently understand that all errors, regardless of perceived significance, should be reported through the same channels as for all other errors. This study also found that nurses tend to lack honesty with regards to their beliefs about how they report their own medication administration errors in; leading to the assumption that nurses either do not understand the appropriate protocols for error reporting or do not believe they have committed errors when they have. Finally, this study has offered suggestions for changes to the error reporting framework to dispel misconceptions and ensure nurses understand that all errors need to be reported regardless of significance, perceptions, or related fears.