Medication administration error: magnitude and associated factors among nurses in Ethiopia

BMC Nursing

Table 2 Types of medication administration error and some observed examples in the inpatient departments of Bahir Dar FHRH, March 2014

Type of MAEs	Some observed examples
Technique error	Mostly during administration, the nurses used only one glove for different patients and they are not changed the glove even if it has visible contamination.
	Most of the nurses did not wash their hands before medication administration.
	Some of the nurses had not used safe wastage disposal system like they remain the injectable syringe and vial container at the patient bed.
Wrong route	The observer observed while Insuline given intradermally instead of subcutaneous route.
Missed drug (doss)	Quinine mostly was run for more than 8 h instead of 4 h and the 2nd dose missed.
Missed drug (doss)	Methrindazole IV medication mostly missed at 2 PM.
Time error	Most 6 PM medications were being given at 4:30 PM.
Documentation error	Most of the nurses did not document after administration of the drug.
Documentation error	If the nurses documented before administering the medications, they did not cancelled what they documented even if the patient refused or can’t afford to buy the drug.
Dose error	Instead of administering 2 g of Ceftriaxone, the nurse administered 1 g.
Dose error	Usually at pediatric ward, the nurse did not calculate the exact doses of medication.
Unauthorized drug error	Instead of IV Ciprofloxaciline, IV Ceftriaxone was administered. The observer observed a nurse while she was giving Quinine IV instead of Plasil IV.

ISSN: 1472-6955