Barriers to the reporting of medication administration errors and near misses : an interview study of nurses at a psychiatric hospital

C. Haw, J. Stubbs, G. L. Dickens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Accessible summary: Medication administration errors and near misses are common including in mental health settings. Nurses should report all errors and near misses so that lessons can be learned and future mistakes avoided. We interviewed 50 nurses to find out if they would report an error that a colleague had made or if they would report a near‐miss that they had. Less than half of nurses said they would report an error made by a colleague or a near‐miss involving themselves. Nurses commonly said they would not report the errors or near misses because there was a good excuse for the error/near miss, because they lacked knowledge about whether it was an error/near miss or how to report it, because they feared the consequences of reporting it, or because reporting it was too much work. Mental health nurses mostly report similar reasons for not reporting errors and near misses as nurses working in general medical settings. We have not seen another study where nurses would not report an error or near miss because they thought there was a good excuse for it. Training programmes and policies should address all the reasons that prevent reporting of errors and near misses.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)797-805
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
Volume21
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords

  • administration
  • drugs
  • medical errors
  • psychiatric hospitals
  • psychiatric nurses

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