Abstract: Children are more susceptible to medication errors
than adults. Medication administration process is the last stage in the
medication treatment process and most of the errors detected in this
stage. Little research has been undertaken about medication errors in
children in the Middle East countries. This study was aimed to
evaluate how the paediatric nurses adhere to the medication
administration policy and also to identify any medication preparation
and administration errors or any risk factors. An observational,
prospective study of medication administration process from when
the nurses preparing patient medication until administration stage
(May to August 2014) was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Twelve
paediatric nurses serving 90 paediatric patients were observed. 456
drug administered doses were evaluated. Adherence rate was variable
in 7 steps out of 16 steps. Patient allergy information, dose
calculation, drug expiry date were the steps in medication
administration with lowest adherence rates. 63 medication
preparation and administration errors were identified with error rate
13.8% of medication administrations. No potentially life-threating
errors were witnessed. Few logistic and administrative factors were
reported. The results showed that the medication administration
policy and procedure need an urgent revision to be more sensible for
nurses in practice. Nurses’ knowledge and skills regarding to the
medication administration process should be improved.
Abstract: In order to improve the overall safety of chemotherapy, safety-protecting netwas established for the whole process from prescribing by physicians, transcribing by nurses, dispensing by pharmacists to administering by nurses. The information system was used to check and monitorwhole process of administration and related sheets were computerized to simplify the paperwork.