Examination of medical error tendencies and the factors affecting these tendencies in nursing students attending hospital practices

This study was conducted in order to determine the tendency of medical error and the factors affecting them, in April 2019, with second, third and fourth grade Gaziantep University nursing students who participated in hospital practices. Data were collected with using "The Form of Student Information and Question" and "The Scale of Tendency to Medical Error in Nursing (HTHEÖ)(1)" and 654 questionnaires were evaluated. 71.7% of the students were female and 53.8% did not choose the nursing department willingly. The average age was 21.58±2.26 and the average level of liking the nursing department was 2.94±1.04 out of 5. 19.6% of the students made medical errors, 32.6% witnessed medical errors. The overall mean score of HTHEÖ was 4.14 ± 0.58; In the sub-dimensions, 4.28±0.57 for "Drug and Transfusion Applications", 4.15±0.65 for "Hospital Infections", 3.97±0.76 for "Patient Monitoring and Material Safety", 4.09±0.78 for "Falls" and 4.02±0.92 for "Communication". There is a positive correlation between age and level of liking the nursing department and scale-general mean scores and some sub-dimension mean scores. There is a statistically significant difference between class, gender, characteristic of fear while doing something new, status of stress, characteristic of clutter-regularity, the effect of harming others, status of self-assessment as knowledge and skills, status of feeling ready and qualified for practice, status of choose the nursing department willingly, level of satisfaction with nursing, status of education about medical errors, status of previous hospitalization himself/herself or his/her relatives, willingness to report the medical errors, opinion about whether medical errors is normal, some opinions-thoughts-attitudes about medical errors and the scale-general mean scores and some sub-dimension mean scores. Additionally, there is a statistically significant difference between some other characteristics/factors and one-two sub-dimension mean scores (p<0.05). As a result; it was found that students' tendency to medical error was low and some characteristics/factors effects tendency to medical error. The efforts of education and awareness about medical errors for nursing students can be useful in reducing medical errors.