Willingness of Nurses to Report Medication Administration Errors in Southern Taiwan: A Cross‐Sectional Survey

Abstract

Background: Underreporting of medication administering errors (MAEs) is a threat to the quality of nursing care. The reasons for MAEs are complex and vary by health professional and institution. Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of MAEs and the willingness of nurses to report them. Methods: A cross‐sectional study was conducted involving a survey of 14 medical surgical hospitals in southern Taiwan. Nurses voluntarily participated in this study. A structured questionnaire was completed by 605 participants. Data were collected from February 1, 2005 to March 15, 2005 using the following instruments: MAEs Unwillingness to Report Scale, Medication Errors Etiology Questionnaire, and Personal Features Questionnaire. One additional question was used to identify the willingness of nurses to report medication errors: “When medication errors occur, should they be reported to the department?” This question helped to identify the willingness or lack thereof, to report incident errors. Results: The results indicated that 66.9% of the nurses reported experiencing MAEs and 87.7% of the nurses had a willingness to report the MAEs if there were no consequences for reporting. The nurses' willingness to report MAEs differed by job position, nursing grade, type of hospital, and hospital funding. The final logistic regression model demonstrated hospital funding to be the only statistically significant factor. The odds of a willingness to report MAEs increased 2.66‐fold in private hospitals (p = 0.032, CI = 1.09 to 6.49), and 3.28 in nonprofit hospitals (p = 0.00, CI = 1.73 to 6.21) when compared to public hospitals. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that reporting of MAEs should be anonymous and without negative consequences in order to monitor and guide improvements in hospital medication systems.

Why are chemotherapy administration errors not reported? Perceptions of oncology nurses in a Nigerian tertiary health institution

“…[4] In Taiwan, a study reported that 66.9% of the nurses had experienced MAEs. [34] Another study reported that the mean rate of MAEs among nurses in Iran was 19.5%. [35] The average number of MAEs reported by nurses in a study conducted in Jordan was 2.2.…”

Development and Validation of the Inventory of Perceptions of Medication Administration Errors for Nurses in Taiwan

“…Medication administration errors (MAEs) refer to ''medication errors that occur during the process of administering a drug'' (Lin & Ma, 2009) or ''any deviation from administration procedures, policies and/or practices for medication administration'' (Drach-Zahavy & Pud, 2010). Errors in administration account for most medication errors (Haw, Dickens, & Stubbs, 2005), threaten patient safety, and increase hospital costs (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 1999; Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation [TJCHA], 2013).…”

“…The Taiwan Patient Safety Reporting System, Taiwan's clearinghouse for official MAE statistics, identified 1,760 MAE events at 66 hospitals in 2005 and 59,745 events at 698 hospitals in 2012 (TJCHA, 2013). However, because nurses are reluctant to report MAE because of administrative obstacles and fears of blame or lawsuits (Lin & Ma, 2009), these statistics may be significantly lower than actual MAE incident numbers. A survey instrument that measures nurse reactions after an MAE may allow hospitals to not only identify the key obstacles to MAE reporting but also develop support programs to facilitate the nurse's adjustment and return to duty.…”

“…Errors in administration account for most medication errors (Haw, Dickens, & Stubbs, 2005), threaten patient safety, and increase hospital costs (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 1999; Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation [TJCHA], 2013). Many studies have focused on preventing MAE and understanding the barriers to MAE reporting to create a safer environment for patients (Etchegaray & Throckmorton, 2009;Lin & Ma, 2009). Factors found to affect MAE prevention include the quality of medication administration procedures (O'Connell, Hawkins, & Ockerby, 2013), the willingness of hospital administration to identify risk factors (Lawton, Carruthers, Gardner, Wright, & McEachan, 2012;Teunissen, Bos, Pot, Piuim, & Kramers, 2013), and the organizational climate (Drach-Zahavy & Pud, 2010;Sheu, Wei, Chen, Yu, & Tang, 2009).…”

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“…Nurses are often fatigued and stressed due to the heavy load of work and organizational factors which causes them to conduct errors (Lin & Ma, 2009). The staff highlighted that there are constant emergency cases and the staff and doctors are always on their feet; making them vulnerable to errors.…”