Perceptions on Medication Administration Errors (MAEs) among nurses at a tertiary government hospital

Aim

To identify the nurses' perceptions on the occurrence of Medication Administration Errors (MAEs) and barriers to reporting using the MAE Reporting Survey.

Background

MAEs is a serious public health threat that causes patient injury, death, and results to expensive health care.

Methods

Descriptive statistical analysis.

Results

The most frequent reasons for MAEs according to the nurses were physicians' medication orders are not legible (4.67 ± 1.21) and unit staffing levels are inadequate (4.63 ± 1.45). The most frequent reason for unreported MAEs were when med errors occur, nursing administration focuses on the individual rather than looking at the systems as a potential cause of the error (4.95 ± 4.33) and nurses could be blamed if something happens to the patient as a result of the medication error (4.29 ± 1.48). The highest prevalent non-IV related MAEs included wrong time of administration (M = 3.02 ± 2.37) and medication administered after the order to discontinue has been written (M = 2.60 ± 2.11), both with 0–20 % of reported non-IV MAEs. The highest prevalent IV related MAEs included wrong time of administration (M = 2.76 ± 2.29) and medication administered after the order to discontinue has been written (M = 2.45 ± 2.01). More than half (n = 95, % = 54.29) of the respondents stated that 0–20 % of all types of medication errors, including IV and non-IV medication errors are reported.

Conclusions

The findings supported the notion that nurses perceive low percentages of MAEs reporting.