Effective Factors on Occurrence of Drugs Mistakes from the Viewpoints of Nurses

Human error is more prevalent among nurses than other health care occupations. These mistakes are used as important index for determination of the safety of patients in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the different factors resulting in the occurrence of medication mistakes in an educational hospital. This study was performed on 236 nurses working in a hospitals affiliated to Babol University of Medical Sciences, Iran. The data collection tools were demographic and organizational information questionnaire, containing questions about the main causes of medication mistakes. Data were analyzed using SPSS software using descriptive statistic and analytical statistics such as independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. The lowest and the highest score among the four dimensions of the causes of medication mistakes questionnaire were related to the dimension for nursing management (mean=3.13, SD= 0.66) and causes related to nurses (mean=3.54, SD= 0.68), respectively. Also, based on Pearson Correlation, there was a significant and direct correlation between all the four dimensions of the questionnaire and the demographic and organizational factors of nurses. Only the shift work variable of the employees had a significant statistical relationship with the final score of the causes of medication mistakes. Nursing staffs need to pay more attention to possible causes of medication errors such as reducing workload and reducing the working hours of nurses, because the mentioned factors can lead to fatigue and decrease of concentration of nurses and may increase the possibility of occurrence of mistake.