Medication errors and their relationship with job and demographic characteristics among nurses in hospitals of Ahvaz jundishapur university of medical sciences

Background: Medication error in hospitals is a major cause of errors, which may cause disruptions in the workflow of the health care systems. The aim of this study was to assess medication errors made by nurses and the relationship of such errors with job and demographic characteristics. Material and methods: This was a descriptive study on 225 nurses in various hospitals, selected through multistage random sampling. The data were collected through demographic and medication error questionnaires, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chisquare, Kruskal-Wallis, One-way analysis of variance. Results: The findings of the study revealed that medication errors such as untimely drug administration (55.6%), and drug administration without prescription (44.5%) occurs and exists in the hospitals. The findings also showed that demographics characteristics such as age, gender, work experience in a hospital or in a specific ward, passing training course, employment type and the type of medication errors were significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results, effective management and promotion motivate nurses. Therefore, increasing scientific and clinical expertise in the area of nursing medication orders is recommended to prevent medication errors in various states of nursing intervention. Employing experienced staff in areas with high risk of medication errors and supervising less-experienced staff through competent personnel are also suggested.