Contributing factors to medication administration errors and barriers to self-reporting among nurses working in pediatric units of selected referral hospitals in Rwanda

Abstract

Introduction: Medication errors continue to be the major problem that causes morbidity and mortality and increases costs for healthcare systems. Medication errors are the leading cause of incidents in the patient safety worldwide. The aim of the study: This study aimed at assessing the contributing factors to medication administration errors and barriers to reporting among nurses who work in pediatric units of selected referral hospitals. Methods: This study used a quantitative descriptive cross sectional design. A convenience sampling was used to get a total sample of 151 participants. The data were collected using a questionnaire. The reliability of the tool was measured by Cronbach‘s alpha and it had 0.86. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used. Results: The completed questionnaires were 149 which translated to the response rate of 98.6%.This study revealed that the majority of the participants were females 113 (75.84%). Twenty 20 (20.1%) of participants have identified wrong time error. Identified factors to MAEs were workload or few nurses compared to the number of patients eighty two (55.0%) and fifty (33.6%) responded that unit staff do not receive in service trainings about new medication. Whereas barriers to self-reporting were fear to be blamed if something happens to the patient as a result of the medication administration error eighty eight (59.1%). A strong association was found between socio demographic data except gender with (p= 0.039). Experience and marital status revealed as strong association to factors contributing to MAEs (p=0.001; p=0.000) respectively. Conclusion: MAEs are committed frequently among the participants. Factors contributing to MAEs were found in both parties and barriers to self reporting were identified to be the fear reasons and administrative reasons. Therefore, a non-punitive environment is imperative in encouraging self-reporting of medication errors and it takes everyone efforts to improve patient safety by preventing medication administration errors.