Nursing students medication errors and their opinions on the reasons of errors: A cross-sectional survey

Objective: To determine number and type of medication administration errors made by nursing students, and to explore the rate of reportings, emotions after the errors and the causes of errors. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the two schools of nursing, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey, in February 2009, and comprised students having worked in hospital settings for a minimum of one semester and who had been involved in administering medications. SPSS 13 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 324 subjects in the study, 124(38.3%) had made an error in clinical/field applications. Overall, 402 medication administration errors had been reported ofwhich 155 (38.6%)were detected and corrected by academic nurses. The most common error reported was deviation from aseptic technique in 96(23.8%) cases. Most common emotions resulting from errors were fear in 45(28.8%) and anxiety in 37(23.5%). Most common cause was performance deficit in 141(43.4%) cases and the most common contributing factor was workload declared by 179(55.2%). Conclusions: The error rate among nursing students was high whereas reporting of errors was low.