A Review of Investigating Causes of Medication Errors among Nurses of Emergency and Intensive Care Unit

Roghayyeh Ghanbarpour Joybari; Hedayat Jafari; Seyyed Mahmoud  Samadian Kiamahalleh; Gholamreza Houshmand

doi:10.18502/tbsrj.v4i2.9663

Roghayyeh Ghanbarpour Joybari School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
Hedayat Jafari Traditional and Complementary Medicine Research Center, Addiction Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
Seyyed Mahmoud Samadian Kiamahalleh School of Health, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
Gholamreza Houshmand Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/tbsrj.v4i2.9663

Keywords: Causes; Emergency department nurses; Incidence; Intensive care unit nurses; Medication error

Abstract

Introduction: Medication errors are common in the emergency department and intensive care units, but they can be reduced with a series of appropriate planning. The study goal was to investigate the causes and extent of medication errors among the emergency and intensive care unit nurses.

Material and Methods: This study was done as a review. In the present study, the studies were searched in Persian and English language databases such as SID, Magiran, Iran medex, Scopus and PubMed with the keywords such as medication error, nurses, emergency department, intensive care unit, nurse department, wrong medication, emergency nurse, and special department were searched in databases. The inclusion criteria were the articles dealing with the medication errors among the ICU nurses and the emergency departments. In order to review the present study articles, the year limit from 2014-2022 were applied. The exclusion criteria were the review articles.

Results: The results showed that overwork, fatigue, deficiency of staff, illegible instructions, insufficient knowledge, physicians’ illegible handwriting, and night shifts, similar classification of drugs have been the causes of medication errors among the nurses.

Conclusion: According to the findings of the study, it is suggested to hold re-training classes periodically and to have the number of staff proportionate to the needs of the department so that imposing too much workload on staff is avoided.