Onkologie. 2014:8(4):178-181

Medication errors from the perspective of health care management

Iva Brabcová¹, Sylva Bártlová¹, Valérie Tóthová¹, Dita Svobodová²

¹ Zdravotně sociální fakulta Jihočeské univerzity v Českých Budějovicích, Katedra ošetřovatelství a porodní asistence

² Ústav sociálního lékařství a zdravotní politiky LF ÚP, Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice v Praze

Medication errors belong to most frequently occurring mistakes made in healthcare facilities. This research analyse the causes of medication

errors committed in nursing practice. Research results prove that medication errors can be divided into four categories: human causes

(overworked personnel, nurse fatigue and patient non-cooperation), intervention causes (unfinished, illegible prescriptions, generic medication

errors committed by nurse, wrong storage of medication), technology causes (old or malfunctioning technological equipment) and

system causes (lack of internal regulations, unsuitable working conditions, insufficient system of error reporting). The conclusion reached

is that mistakes are seldom caused by single individuals and are instead the results of a combination of several unfavourable factors, with

emphasis on system faults. Authors of this contribution further suggest a changed approach to the given problem. Instead of punishing

individuals for committed mistakes, revision of the current system should be sought and so the errors prevented from happening.

Keywords: nursing care, medication, error, causes, solution

Published: October 1, 2014  Show citation