Survey nurse,s view about factors affects medication errors in different care units of Imam Hossein hospital in Shahroud

Medicine administeration is an important part of treatment and nursing care process and medication errors is a serious threat in health and patient safety and also in nursing profession. This study carried out to investigate the nurse,s view about factors affects medication errors in different care units of Imam Hossein hospital in Shahroud. This study is a descriptive analytic and cross-sectional study that has been done on 40 nurses who they work in different care units of Imam Hossein hospital in Shahrood. Subjects were selected in unrandomized sampling and their points of view about factors affect medication errors were measured by using a designed questionnaire. Data was analyzed by using descriptive and analytic statitic methods in SPSS software. Upon to results, the majority of subjects mentioned that factors such as: Fatigue arised from overtime work (66.7%), deficiency number of nurses comparison number of patient (59%), psychological stress of nurse (48.7%), illegible physician order in patients file (42.5%) and lack of enough time (42.1%) are the most important factors that caused medication errors. Also, the majority of subjects mentioned that factors such as: Type of drug arrangement in drug shelf (47.4%), incorrect work devision in unit (46.2%), drug room environment (light, area, …) (46.2%) and type of prescription (intravascular, intramuscular,…) (36.1%) are the least important factors that caused medication errors. Subjects explained that factors such as: Morning shift (48.7%) and drug protocol (38.9%) were not effective in causing medication errors. There weren,t significant correlation between medication errors factors and demographic variables. Considering the results, for medication errors prevention in different care units, effective management and improvement motivation, knowledge potential and clinical skills in nurses about implementation of medication is recommended.