Highlights
- •Medication errors are multifacceted requring complex intervetion.
- •Causes of errors need to be identified prior implementation of appropriate intervetions.
- •Medication safety education is an integral element of interventions in a bid to reduce administration errors.
- •Interdisciplinary collaboration in the medication process contributes to the reduction of medication administration errors
Abstract
Background
Medication errors are a great concern to health care organisations as they are costly
and pose a significant risk to patients. Children are three times more likely to be
affected by medication errors than adults with medication administration error rates
reported to be over 70%.
Objective
To identify nursing interventions to reduce medication administration errors and perform
a meta-analysis.
Methods
Online databases; British Nursing Index (BNI), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,
Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EMBASE and MEDLINE
were searched for relevant studies published between January 2000 to 2020. Studies
with clear primary or secondary aims focusing on interventions to reduce medication
administration errors in paediatrics, children and or neonates were included in the
review.
Results
442 studies were screened and18 studies met the inclusion criteria. Seven interventions
were identified from included studies; education programmes, medication information
services, clinical pharmacist involvement, double checking, barriers to reduce interruptions
during drug calculation and preparation, implementation of smart pumps and improvement
strategies. Educational interventional aspects were the most common identified in
13 out of 18 included studies. Meta-analysis demonstrated an associated 64% reduction
in medicine administration errors post intervention (pooled OR 0.36 (95% Confidence
Interval (CI) 0.21–0.63) P = 0.0003).
Conclusion
Medication safety education is an important element of interventions to reduce administration
errors. Medication errors are multifaceted that require a bundle interventional approach
to address the complexities and dynamics relevant to the local context. It is imperative
that causes of errors need to be identified prior to implementation of appropriate
interventions.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 07, 2021
Accepted:
August 27,
2021
Received in revised form:
August 26,
2021
Received:
May 28,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
