BACKGROUND

Medication administration errors (MAEs) are significant threats to patient safety, yet many incidents go unreported. Effective reporting of medication errors can provide valuable data to improve safety practices.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine registered nurses' experiences with medication administration errors, their perceptions of medication error reporting, and the potential barriers in reporting medication errors.

METHOD

Having used a descriptive cross-sectional quantitative research design, the study was conducted on 232 registered nurses. Data were structured via questionnaire adopted from medication administration error reporting scale with content validity index (CVI) of 0.87 and the scale's overall internal consistency alpha (KR-20) of 0.82. Data were collected from April 2020 to May 2020 through emailed invitation and via selected social media platforms such Facebook and Instagram, consent forms were also gathered thru email, and the survey instruments were hosted in Google Form. Data collected from the survey were electronically stored in a password-protected cloud. Quantitative data were analyzed using IBM SPSS software. The characteristics of the sample were presented using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages).

RESULTS

Two-hundred thirty-two registered nurses (n=232) participated in the study. Most of the participants were aged 20 to 30 years old (n=158, 68.10%) and majority were females (n=165, 71.1%). Most subjects have four or more years of clinical practice and were assigned in the general ward (n=129, 55.60% and one-hundred eighty-one (78.02%) were affiliated in private hospitals.

Most respondents reported having encountered medication administration errors (72.41%). Despite acknowledging the importance of error reporting, many nurses did not report errors due to fear of negative consequences and lack of support from management. Specifically, 47.41% of nurses reported errors "always," while 12.07% never reported. The data revealed that majority of the participants have encountered medication administration errors and most of them reported such incidents. The study identified several barriers that deterred nurses from reporting these errors: fear of personal blame, concerns about adverse consequences, and a focus on individual accountability by nursing administration. The lack of support from the management brought insecurity to nurses to admit their error. The findings indicated that fear of negative repercussions and insufficient managerial support contribute significantly to the underreporting of medication errors. This reluctance to report compromised the ability to identify and to address systemic issues, which is crucial for improving patient safety.

CONCLUSION

Hospital organization should promote a culture of safety. Nursing managers were discovered to have provided personal, professional, and legal support that encouraged a culture of reporting errors in order to discover the root cause of errors and not focus on nurses alone so as to eventually lessen and to ultimately prevent medication errors from happening. To foster a culture of safety, healthcare organizations were also recommended to have implemented strategies that encourage error reporting and support nurses. Recommendations also included developing anonymous reporting systems, providing comprehensive personal, professional, and legal support, and shifting focus from individual blame to systemic improvements. Such measures were recommended to help enhance reporting practices by ultimately reducing medication errors and improving patient outcomes.

Human