A review on the knowledge and attitudes of pediatric nurses regarding medication errors

Purpose: The study was conducted to determine knowledge and attitudes regarding medication errors of pediatric nurses working in pediatric units of Manisa City Hospital, Akhisar State Hospital, Alaşehir State Hospital, Gördes State Hospital, Salihli State Hospital, Soma State Hospital, Turgutlu State Hospital and Manisa Celal Bayar University Hafsa Sultan Hospital under the authority of Manisa Provincial Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey. Materials and Methods: A sociodemographic data form created in line with literature information and a "scale of knowledge and attitudes of nurses regarding medication errors" for determining the knowledge and attitudes of pediatric nurses were used as data collection tools by the researcher. This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed with 211 pediatric nurses between October 15 - December 15, 2018 (n=211). Data obtained from the forms were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 program. Results: Of the study participants, 92.9% of them were female and 7.1% of them were male. It was found that 45%, 40.3% and 14.7% of pediatric nurses were in the 20-30, 31-40 and 41-50 age group, respectively; 47.4% of them worked by paying regard to safety measures; 45%, 48.8% and 51.7% of them reported errors by nurses, physicians or pharmacists, respectively, when they witnesses such errors; 33.6% of them shared a medication error with the patient and the patient's family; 43.1% of them used abbreviations in drug administrations; 57.8% of them recorded medications at the time of administration; and 79.6% of them acted according to the protocol of taking verbal orders. Our study detected the rate of responding to safe medication practices correctly as 47.7%. Conclusion: It is considered necessary to enhance quantity and quality of clinical training programs, strengthen a non-punitive organizational culture by increasing the frequency of internal audits and take required measures by detecting the causes of medication errors through the consideration of error reporting systems at the hospitals. Keywords: Pediatric nursing, medication errors, knowledge, attitude