The Willingness of Nurses to Report Incidents of Errors in Administering Medication in Southern Taiwan

Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Yu-Hua Lin, MSN, RN , Nursing Department, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan
Su-mei Ma, MS, RN , Cancer Center, Chi Mei Medical Center, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan County, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: To understand the nurses reported experiencing medication administering errors in Taiwan.

Learning Objective 2: To understand nurses had a willingness to report the medication administering errors if there is no-punishment for reporting it

Background: Underreporting of medication administering errors (MAEs) is a threat to nursing care quality. The reason is complex and varies among different health professionals.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the prevalence of MAEs and willingness of nurses to report it.

Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted.

Method: This study involved a survey of 14 medical surgical hospitals in southern Taiwan, and 605 participants completed the structure questionnaire. Data was collected from February 1, 2005 to March 15, 2005. The following three Instruments were used: Chinese Medication Administering Errors Unwillingness to Report Reasons Scale, the factors causing medication errors questionnaire, and personal features questionnaire. An additional question--when medication errors occur, should they be reported to the department?--surveyed the willingness to report incident errors.

Results: The results indicated that 66.9% of the nurses reported experiencing MAEs, and 88.7% of the nurses had a willingness to report the MAEs if there is no-punishment for reporting it. The nurses willingness to report MAEs differed by job position, 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, and 3.28 in nonprofit hospitals when compared to public hospitals.

Conclusion: This study found that anonymous reporting of MAEs can be used for monitoring and guiding improvements to hospital medication systems.