DETERMINATION OF THE OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF NURSES WORKING IN THE SURGICAL CLINICS TOWARDS MEDICATION ERRORS

The study was conducted to determine the opinions and experiences of nurses, working in the surgical clinics, towards medication errors. This descriptive study was conducted in Eskisehir Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine between December 2013 and January 2014. While the population of the study consisted of the nurses who were working in the surgical clinics between the stated dates. It was included in the study 213 nurses who agreed to participate. The data were collected demographic form and 3 questionnaire was used for medication errors. The data were assessed in the SPSS 16.0 packaged software. It was determined that 61.5% of the nurses participating in the study had a bachelor s degree, 68.4% worked in the surgical clinic for 1 - 5 year(s), 51.2% received training on medication after graduation. It was found that 69.5% of the nurses stated that in case of a medical error, the nursing management focused on individuals instead of checking the system as potential cause of the error. In the study, the most common type of medication error was administration of improper dose (51.6%) and the most important factor affecting medication error was work load density (88.7%). The nurses expressed that the reason for medication error was lack of knowledge at the rate of 61.5%. The nurses were making errors in some administrations during medication, the most common error was administration of improper dose, the reason of the error was lack of knowledge, and the most important factor affecting the error was work load density. In order to prevent medication errors, workload of nurses should be reduced, medication errors should be recorded, reasons of medication errors should be investigated, and efficient systematic programs for reducing the errors should be developed.