Residents of San Diego and other areas of California may want to learn more about a study instituted in Iran. The goal of the study was to evaluate nursing errors in the medication process that affect patient care.
Nursing mistakes are a global problem. According to NCBI, there were medication errors of 64.55% in randomly selected nursing procedures. Some nurses reported errors on the verge of happening, which accounted for 31.37%.
What are some of the most common errors?
Medication errors can cause serious harm to patients who get the wrong drug or the wrong amount of the right drug. Some of the most frequent errors stem from the following:
- Wrong dosage
- Abbreviations rather than the drug’s full name
- Similar drug names
- Lack of knowledge of drugs and terms
Inappropriate dosage, infusion rate and the use of acronyms instead of names were the biggest causes of errors. The most important errors occurred with intravenous injection.
This study happened in 2009. Nurses were categorized as making types of medication errors. Most of the nurses were under 30 years of age and were female. More than half were contract nurses. Experience, age and gender were not factors that were the cause of the mistakes.
What are some of the nurse’s reasons for the errors?
British and American nurses, reported in another study, had medication errors in medicine elimination, wrong dosage of medicine and administration of medications without a doctor’s prescription. Nurses attribute a large number of errors to the following:
- Noisy and crowded environment
- Tiredness
- Lack of adequate support
- Increased workload
- Novice knowledge
- Carelessness
Nursing errors may have many causes. To ensure the best patient care, it is important for nurses to learn the reasons for these errors and work to prevent them in the future.
