Nurses View on Drug Administration Error and Patient Safety in Health Facilities in the Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

Drug administration is a core responsibility of nurses. Medication error occurring during the drug administration process can be attributed to varied effects on patients’ safety, ranging from the errors going undetected to prolonged hospital stays, discomfort and death. It is relevant to identify the extent of drug administration error in the district hospitals in the Central region of Ghana. A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses nursing patients admitted to selected district hospital in the Central Region of Ghana. Primary data was gathered from 168 nurses using a pre-tested questionnaire and a review of incident books on the wards. Logistic regression was done to assess possible factors contributing to drug administration error. The majority of the respondents (61.9%) were below 29 years and had worked between one and four years (72.2%). Most common types of error committed include pre-administration error (mean=2.67) and administration technique error (mean=2.67). The majority of these errors occur during the night shift (65%). Lack of understanding of medication jargons (mean = 3.89), “feeling uncomfortable to wake patient up’ (mean = 3.78) and nurses' eagerness to go home (mean = 3.67) were the most predisposing factors to drug administration error. Increasing internal environment constraints corresponds with increasing drug administration error commitment by a factor of 0.228. Lack of emphasis placed on medication error as a measure of quality of care and non-existence of channels for reporting drug administration error were the main barriers to reporting drug administration error.