A study on nurses' perception on the medication error at one of the hospitals in East Malaysia

Background and Aims. Medication error is defined as any preventable event that might cause or lead to an inappropriate use or harming of the patient. Such events could be due to compounding, dispensing, distribution, administration and monitoring. The aim of the present study was to determine the nurses' perception on medication error that were related directly or indirectly to the process of administration of drugs. Materials and Methods. This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted on 92 staff nurses working in the selected wards in one of the hospitals in East Malaysia. Data was obtained through structured questionnaires. Results. Analysis of data was done through SPSS program for descriptive inferential statistics. Out of a total of 92 subjects, sixty-eight (73.9%) indicated medication error occurred because the nurses were tired and exhausted. Seventy nine subjects (85.9%) believed that any medication error should be reported to the doctors; another 74 (80.2%) knew that their colleagues committed medication error and 52 (56.5%) did not report the case. Forty eight (52.17%) subjects committed medication error at least once throughout their life. Of the 48 committed medication, 45 (93.75%) nurses believed that the error committed was not serious; while 39 (81.25%) believed the error occurred during the 1 ^st 5 years of their working experience. Conclusions. The findings showed that the incidence of medication error was due to the defect in the organizational system itself and not solely due to the mistakes on the part of any individual.