Nurses' perception of medication administration errors in benghazi children hospital

Background/Aims: Medication Administration Errors (MAEs) are a global problem, common among nurses and can threaten all patients' outcomes. Variation of factors makes pediatrics more vulnerable to medication errors (MEs) and its consequences. Therefore, his study aimed to explore the perspective of pediatric nurses regarding the types, causes of errors, and barriers of reporting errors. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study carried out between January and May 2021. A self-administered was the instrument for the study, distributed to 150 nurses working in Benghazi Children Hospital and 102 questionnaires were valid and complete. Data analyses were performed by descriptive statistics, using SPSS. Results: Administering medication at a wrong time was the most common type of error, followed by wrong rate (62.8% and 47.1%), respectively. The most frequently identified causative factors of MEs were a shortage of nurse staffing compared to the number of patients 76.4% and workload 73.5%. The majority of nurses did not report any MEs, the reasons for not reporting was 46.1% of nurses fear of concentration of personal more than error and 34.3% of them not sure when should report the MEs. Conclusion: MEs are a common problem in the health system. Therefore, this study recommended that strategies to eliminate MEs are required, create blame-free environment for reporting, and encouraging an effective communication.