Knowledge and attitude of nurses regarding medication errors: A significant element in the role of care complexity

It is one of the major concerns for patient safety around the world as highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in their report presented in 2001, medication errors are affecting the revenue of healthcare originations. The key to developing positive conduct to omit the chances of medication errors is to understand how and why they happen. Therefore, this study sought to determine the knowledge, and attitude of nurses regarding medication errors. An analytical cross-sectional study design was used to perform this study at a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan over a period of 3 months. A sample size of 150 was calculated using Slovin’s formula of probability and descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) were calculated for the collected responses. By summing up the participants’ responses, it was noticed that 67% of the nurses possess good knowledge & attitude towards medication errors and 33% of nurses are required to update their knowledge to minimize the vulnerability for the incidence. In conclusion to the findings of this study, the majority of the nurses possess good knowledge and attitudes regarding medication errors. Safe administration of drugs is one of the basic responsibilities of nurses and it is vital to prevent and report such errors as soon as possible in the process of medication administration.