The Prevalence of Medication Errors Among Nursing Students: A Systematic and Meta‑analysis Study

Health promotion and preserving patients’ safety are the main purposes of care in health‑therapeutic systems. With regard to nursing profession, nursing students are exposed to medications errors (MEs) during clinical activities, which can be considered as a threat to patients’ safety. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of MEs among nursing students using a systematic and meta‑analysis approach.

8 studies (in 9 groups) in English and Persian from inception to March 2019, were collected. Searched was conducted in SID, MagIran, IranMedex, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus. The meta‑analysis method and the random effects model were used to analyze the data. In addition, the I2 statistic was used to examine heterogeneity among studies. The analyses were conducted using Stata, version 11.

Analysis of 8 studies (in 9 groups) with a total sample size of 688 showed that the overall MEs’ prevalence among nursing students was 39.68% (95% CI: 22.07‑57.29) and the prevalence of lack of reporting MEs was 48.60% (95%CI: 27.33‑69.86). There were no relationships between the prevalence of MEs and lack of reporting MEs in nursing students with the sample size and the mean age of students.

Considering the relatively high prevalence of MEs and lack of MEs reporting among nursing students and the importance of their effect on the level of patients’ safety, measures such as educations, monitoring by clinical trainers, and examining and eliminating the causes of MEs are essential.