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  Background & Aim: Medication errors are known as the most common preventable and life threatening medical errors. This study aimed to explore perceptions of nurses on medication errors .

  Methods & Materials: This was a qualitative study with content analysis approach. Seventeen nurses were selected purposefully from the intensive care units of Shohada hospital in khoramabad in 2012. Data were gathered using semi structural interviews with the nurses. Data were analyzed using the Lundman and Graneheim method. We used the Linclon and Gouba method to ensure a ccuracy and trustworthiness of the data . 

  Results: Four main categories and six subcategories were recognized including: 1) Management factors (inefficiency in recruitment of human power, poor physical condition and workload) 2) Inefficiency in professionalism (lack of commitment among nurses, insufficient knowledge and inefficiency in the inter professional relationship) 3) Failure in the process of drug prescription by physicians and 4) Failure in production and packaging drugs by drug companies .

  Conclusion: Training and recruiting professional and committed nurses, using electronic medical files, supervision on pharmacy companies to produce and package proper medication can reduce medication errors .

  

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Background & Aim: Medication errors are one of the most common medical errors and these errors have a double importance in neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and type of medication prescribing errors in neonatal intensive care unit.

Methods & Materials: This study is a descriptive-analytical research. A census sample of 71 nurses from the neonatal intensive care unit of 5 hospitals in Yazd was included in study in 2015. The tools of data collection were the demographic and occupational data questionnaire and “medication errors” questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and the Chi-square statistical test, using SPSS software v.18.

Results: 47.9% of nurses (34 persons) had made medication errors. 35.2% of samples had made 1-2 errors, and 51.51% of errors had occurred on the night shift. The most frequent nonparenteral medication errors were errors in drug calculation, drug dosage, the drug route of administration, and incorrect medication. In parenteral medications, errors in the drug infusion rate, drug calculation, drug dosage, and the Lack of attention to drug-drug interactions were frequently reported. Nurses declared that the large number of patients was the first main cause of medication errors.

Conclusion: Given the high frequency of medication prescribing errors particularly on the night shift, as well as considering the disproportionate nurse-to-patient ratio as a major cause of the errors, future research is needed to further evaluate the causes and prevention strategies of the medication errors.

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Background & Aim: Patient safety in general and medication errors in particular are the important indicators of hospital care quality. Risk management is an important and fundamental approach to preventing events caused by medication errors. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of risk management program on the rate of medication errors among intensive care unit nurses.
Methods & Materials: The present study was a non-randomized pre-test, post-test study with a control group, conducted in 2020 in two hospitals in Tehran. The hospitals were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 150 nurses (75 nurses in each group) were selected by the convenience sampling method. For the experimental group, a risk management program was implemented. Data collection tools included the nurses’ demographic questionnaire, the 14-item Wakefield medication error self-reporting questionnaire, and the nurses’ medication quality checklist. Data was collected before and after the intervention and analyzed by the SPSS software version 16 using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The results of independent t-test showed no statistically significant difference between two groups in demographic information and the rate of medication errors before the study (P>0.05). After the intervention, difference in the rate of medication errors was statistically significant between the two groups (P<0.005), indicating a decrease in medication errors in the nurses of the experimental group compared to the control group. The results also showed that the rate of medication error observed in nurses was significantly higher than the error reported by them (P<0.001).
Conclusion: The results showed that the implementation of risk management program was effective in reducing nurses’ medication errors. Implementing a risk management program is recommended to nurses as a way to promote safe medication and achieve safe and desirable nursing care.