Factors affecting the frequency of pharmaceutical errors from the vantage point of nursing students Ilam educational hospitals in 2014

One of the main responsibilities of nurses is to give medicine to patients. If this task is not properly carried out, it leads to pharmaceutical errors that will be a moral challenge. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting pharmaceutical errors from the perspective of nursing staff in Ilam educational hospitals.
This was a cross-sectional study in which 120 nurses working in educational hospitals in Ilam were selected randomly. The study tool was a standard two-part questionnaire that Part I included demographic information and Part II consisted of three areas of nursing, ward and nursing management and the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were calculated. Data analysis was performed using SPSS: 16 software and descriptive and statistical analysis.
In the three domains of nursing (fatigue caused by working (58.3%)), section (high workload in the ward (65.8%)) and nursing management (shortage of nurses compared to patients with (70%)) were the most significant factors that have led to pharmaceutical errors and psychological problems (19.2%), similarity in patients’ names (10.2%) and how to supervise the section (12.5%) were the least common factors, respectively.
Given that the highest incidence of pharmaceutical errors was allocated to nursing field, from the perspective of nurses, therefore, intervention should be a priority in planning. It is recommended that some measures should be taken to reduce the occurrence of errors by raising nursing wages and benefits and reducing shifts per person during the month and increasing the number of nurses in proportion to patients.