Medication Error Reporting Rate and its Barriers and Facilitators among Nurses

Medication errors are among the most prevalent medical errors leading to morbidity and mortality. Effective prevention of this type of errors depends on the presence of a well-organized reporting system. The purpose of this study was to explore medication error reporting rate and its barriers and facilitators among nurses in teaching hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences (Iran). In a descriptive study in 2011, 733 nurses working in Urmia teaching hospitals were included. Data was collected using a questionnaire based on Haddon matrix. The questionnaire consisted of three items about medication error reporting rate, eight items on barriers of reporting, and seven items on facilitators of reporting. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics in SPSS14.The rate of reporting medication errors among nurses was far less than medication errors they had made. Nurses perceived that the most important barriers of reporting medication errors were blaming individuals instead of the system, consequences of reporting errors, and fear of reprimand and punishment. Some facilitating factors were also determined. Overall, the rate of medication errors was found to be much more than what had been reported by nurses. Therefore, it is suggested to train nurses and hospital administrators on facilitators and barriers of error reporting in order to enhance patient safety.