Pharmacists and Nurses Perception of Medication Errors in a Nigerian University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the type and frequency of all
medication dispensing and administration errors as perceived
by pharmacists and nurses respectively, and the factors
associated with such errors in a Nigerian university teaching
hospital.
Methods: The study was conducted at the Obafemi Awolowo
University Teaching Hospitals, Ile-Ife and Ilesa, Nigeria. Data
was collected by the use of pre-tested questionnaire administered to 35 pharmacists and a stratified sample of 130
nurses over a period of 2 weeks. The questionnaires were
sorted and analysed.
Results: The pharmacists that responded (80%) cited incorrect
drug, incorrect strength of drug (70%) and wrong dose of drug
(60%) as the most common dispensing errors. Fifty percent of
pharmacists put the estimated frequency of occurrence of
these dispensing errors at 1 per 100 prescriptions dispensed.
Most of the nurses (65%) identified administration of wrong
drug, administration of wrong dose (63%) and wrong time of
drug administration (57%) as the most frequently occurring
medication administration errors in the teaching hospital. All the
pharmacists and 78% of nurses identified excess workload as
the most important factor contributing to errors in medication
dispensing and administration respectively.
Conclusion: The fundamental factor perceived to be
contributing to errors in medication dispensing and
administration was excess workload resulting from insufficient
members of staff.

Keywords: Medication error, dispensing, drug administration, pharmacist, nurses, Nigeria