Rate and type of medication errors and factors in preventing the report of them in the nursing students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2009

Medication errors can occur during all the stages of medication process and based on the present documents most of the errors are not reported. One of the important duties of nursing students is drug administration. The present study was carried out to evaluate the type and ratio of medication errors that are made by nursing students and factors in preventing of the reporting of them in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. In this descriptive– cross sectional study data was collected using a researcher made questionnaire containing demographic data, number and type of medication errors, and factors preventing the reporting of the errors. Questionnaires were completed by all the nursing students who had passed the pharmacology course and also had had clinical field experience of at least one semester. Questionnaires were completed and self reported. Data was analyzed by SPSS 12 software using statistical tests such as independent t-test, chi square and ANOVA. 27.5% of the student had experienced the medication errors.Total number of the medication errors were 45. Most of the errors were related to the wrong dosage (37.78%) and IV routs (65%). Half of the students had reported their errors. The most important factors preventing the reporting of the errors were as follows: "fear of the reaction from the instructors"," fear of the evaluation scores "," insufficient knowledge" and "non significant error". Based on the findings, in order to prevent the occurrence of the errors and increase the reporting of them, modifying of educational methods of drug administration with emphasis on drug calculations, instructor supervision during medication administration and using non punitive strategies are recommended.