Evaluating the Causes of Medication Errors and their Reporting ‎Refusal from the Viewpoints of Pediatric Wards Nurses in ‎Teaching Hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Medication errors are preventable events that may lead to using incorrect drugs and damaging the patient. The hospitalized children and infants are at high risk of medication errors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the causes of medication errors and their reporting refusal from the viewpoints of pediatric wards nurses.

Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study 80 nursing staffs in pediatric wards were chosen by the convenience sampling method.  These volenteered participats, who were from three hospitals in Tabriz and Maragheh, completed the questionnaires during different shifts. The questionnaire included demographic data, causes of medication errors and causes of medication errors reporting refusal. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis) as well as SPSS software version 21.

Results: Factors relating to the ward and afraiding of managerial issues were the main causes of medication errors and their reporting refusal. Shortage of nursing staff, fatigue due to extra work, and environmental noise were the major causes of medication errors; and inappropriacy of the authorities’ reaction compared to the severity of the fault, fear from the legal issues and the lack of a clear definition of medication error were the most important factors in refusing to report medication errors.

Conclusion: : Base upon the findings of this study, nursing managers should have more attention to the reasonable ratio of staffs’ number to the existing patients’ number, reducing the workload of nurses, constant shifting of the nurses among the wards, reducing environmental noise, as well as the provision of positive feedback after reporting an error and the enrichment of the in-service courses to enlighten the definition of medication errors