Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the circumstances of nurses’ medication administration errors and to explore the correlation between basic attributes of the caregiver and medication administration errors. Our results provide a clinical reference for promoting patient safety.
Methods : This is a retrospectively designed study conducted during 2013–2015. During that time, medication administration errors reported by nurses were recorded. SPSS 21.0 was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the sample attributes and the status of drug errors. The correlations between all variables were analyzed using chi-square tests.
Results: The total number of medication administration errors was 64. Administration error eventsoccurred mainly in the wards of the internal medicine department (32 events), and the severity of these errors was mostly minor (27 events). The majority of the errors were patient identification mistakes (22 events), and the drugs were primarily administered through injection (34 events). Personal factors (51 events) were the most attributable cause for error occurrence. Patient’s age, drug form, and the department where the events occurred were remarkably different (p < 0.05), whereas patient’s gender, age, and drug classification were significantly correlated with the degree of injury (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Nurses must implement the “Three-Read” and “Five-Rights” regulation when administering medication. Nursing supervisors should increase nurses’ awareness of drug administration, analyze the true cause of erroneous events, and endeavor to reduce the incidence of drug administration errors.