Interruptions During Pediatric Medication Preparation and Administration

Abstract

Any interruption or distraction during the process of medication administration might cause a medication error. Thus, thvis increases the damage risk to pediatric patients, who are considered to form a riskier group in terms of medication administration. In studies where qualitative, retrospective records or reported error reasons were examined, interruptions were depicted as the reason of error (1-3). While there is a limited number of studies looking for the reasons and frequencies of errors through the observation method, there is no study aimed at determining the interruption characteristics in pediatrics. Westbrook et al. (3) and Palese et al. (4) suggest determining and describing the factors causing interruptions in the work environment for the patient safety as well as for