THE NURSES PERSPECTIVE ON THE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION ERRORS BASED ON MANAGERIAL FACTORS IN CRITICAL CARE UNITS

Medication errors are the most common types of medical errors that can lead to
serious injuries and even death of the patient. Many factors are related to nurse's medication
administration errors, including managerial factors. The aim of this study was to determine the nurse's
perspective on related managerial factors with medication administration errors in critical care units.
Materials & Methods: This research is a cross sectional study, and the research population include all
nurses working in critical care units (ICU and CCU) of university hospitals. Nurse perspective on
managerial factors related to medication administration errors was evaluated through a two-part
researcher-made questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 19 using exploratory factor
analysis.
Results: The results showed that four variables including illegibility of index card, lack of medication
protocol on ward, lack of staff supervision and control and inadequate training on medication therapy
are the most important managerial factors related to medication errors in nursing perspective
respectively.
Conclusion: Given the importance of patient safety and influence of managerial factors in occurrence
of medication errors, it is recommend to managers to establish a computerized physician order entry
system, placing protocols relating to medication therapy available to nurses and retraining courses
about medication