Evaluation of Frequency and Related Factors of Medical Errors made by Nurses, in Sanandaj Teaching Hospitals in 2018

Carrying out medical orders is one of the most important parts of treatment and medical errors can cause unrepairable damages. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of nurses' medical errors and their related factors in Sanandaj teaching hospitals in 2018.

In this descriptive-analytical (cross-sectional) study, we reviewed 400 medical recoreds of the patients in educational hospitals in Sanandaj, during January, February, and  March 2018. Using a department  form consisting of demographic data of nurses (age, gender, occupational experience, working hours during a month and working shifts) and a specific checklist about medical errors including errors in recording drugs, in the spelling of drugs, in recording the exact form of drugs, in recording the exact dosage of administrated drugs, in recording increase or decrease of the dosage, in removing the drugs which had been discontinued. The opinions of the researcher and the nurse who had made the mistake, about the reason of exact error were also included. Data were analyzed by descriptive (frequency and percentage of frequency) and analytic (chi-square) tests.

Medical errors were found in 34 medical records. The most frequent errors occurred in the morning shifts (79.4 %), in the female gender (76.5 %), in the age group between  20 and 30 years of age in the nurses with occupational experience of less than 5 years, and in those who worked 100 to 200 hours/month (61.8) . The number of medical errors had significant relationships with occupational experience, age group, and working hours of the nurses.

Most mistakes were made by nurses who beared a heaver workload or had occupational experience of less than 5 years. Regarding the results of this study, in order to reduce the medical errors in the hospitals, the workload of nurses should be reduced and nurses with little experience should work under close supervision of the experienced nurses.