Nurses' perspectives on the reasons behind medication errors and the barriers to error reporting

Background: Medication errors may happen in any hospital setting. Medication error reporting can enhance patient safety and provide valuable information about reasons behind errors. Objectives: The present study aimed to determine nurses' perspectives on the reasons behind medication errors and the barriers to error reporting. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 on 213 hospital nurses working in three hospitals in Kerman, Iran. Nurses working in different inpatient wards were selected through random sampling. Data were collected using a three-part questionnaire on nurses' demographic characteristics, reasons behind medication errors, and reasons for not reporting them. Data analysis was done through the independent sample t-test and the one-way analysis of variance. Results: The most and the least important reasons behind medication errors were nurses' insufficient attention to patients' medical records (3.63 ± 1.29) and the high number of tasks (2.01 ± 0.99), respectively. Moreover, the most and the least important reasons for not reporting medication errors included forgetting to report (2.80 ± 1.20) and fear over being blamed by doctors (2.03 ± 0.98), respectively. Conclusion: Nurse- and management-related factors were the most important reasons behind medication errors and not reporting them, respectively. Designing an efficient system for medication error reporting and a systematic approach for evaluating and managing error risk factors is recommended.