Experience of nurses about medication errors: A Literature Review

Abstract

Medication errors compromise patient safety rights by causing morbidity or in worst scenarios mortality. The globe spends US$ 42 billion on costs associated with medication errors annually. Europe’s 15% of annual hospital expenditure is used on treating accidents due compromised patient safety. WHO in 2017 launched a campaign on “medication without harm”. Nurses play a key and diverse role in the medication management process. The study aimed at reviewing the literature on the experiences of nurses about medication er-rors. A comprehensive search in CINAHL and MEDLINE databases gave rise to seven articles included in review whose results were then analyzed using content analysis. Three main catego-ries that emerged from the analyzed data were perceived factors associated to medication er-rors, barriers to reporting medication errors and the perceived successful strategies in addressing medication errors. To enhance patient safety, there is need for an individual blame free culture, an effective error reporting system in clinical settings coupled with clearly defined guidelines and rules concerning medication errors. Nurses’ workload needs to be reduced through increased staffing and de-creased non clinical tasks. There is need for proper training on medication management to re-duce medication errors by new nurse.