Exploring Nurse Experiences and Perspectives on Medication Administration Errors

This study explores nurse experiences and perspectives on medication administration errors and their impact on patient safety. It aims to identify barriers faced by nurses and the role of workplace support in minimizing errors. The research is relevant for understanding the factors contributing to medication errors and developing strategies to improve patient safety.

Guided questions Answer Template (Please do not Remove the questions)
Guided Question Qualitative Study Quantitative Study
1. Aim and
Significance (5
marks 200 words)
a. What was the aim and
significance of the study?
The main aim of the study by Smeulers et al. (2014)
to explore nurse experiences and perspectives on
medication administration errors. The significance
of research in this area is that findings from this
study can help to tailor specific nursing strategies
that can reduce the likelihood of error. As
medication errors cause harm to patient and lead
to adverse risk event, the results can help to
understand the barriers faced by nurse during
medication administration while leads of violation
or one more of the seven rights of medication
administration. Nurse’s perspective can help to
understand the areas where education and learning
is needed to prevent errors.
The main purpose of the study by Sahay, Hutchinson and East
(2015) was to examine the relationship between workplace
support and relationships and safe medication practice among
graduate nurse. Research study gives the insight that nurses are
more susceptible to make medication errors because of lack of
familiarity with the work environment and high level of
engagement in administering medication during their shift time
(Parry, Barriball & While, 2015). Hence, research done to identify
links between workplace support and safe medication
administration can help to detect whether good workplace
support and relationship can support graduate nurses to
minimize the rate of medication errors or not.
2. Methods (10 marks
700 words)

a. Identify the
research design used
in the study and was
it appropriate for the
issue discussed?
Explorative qualitative research design was used to
collect data related to perception of nurse on
medication administration. Exploratory qualitative
research design is appropriate when the purpose is
to get a better understanding about a research
problem. It favours analysis of details in depth so
that wider idea about the research topic can be
obtained (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). The use of
this research design by Smeulers et al. (2014) is
appropriate as it was focussed on identifying the
cause behind medication error and exploration of
nurse’s perspective can give in depth knowledge
why medication administration errors take place in
clinical setting
Descriptive quantitative research design was used to collect
information on the research topic. Quantitative studies can be
done either by descriptive or experimental method. The purpose
of descriptive approach to find association between research
variables, whereas as the purpose of experimental approach is to
establish causality (Glaser & Strauss, (2017). The use of
exploratory approach was necessary for this research because the
purpose of this study was to explore the relation between two
research variables namely workplace support and safe medication
administration practice. Hence, based on the study objective, the
use of exploratory qualitative approach is considered appropriate
for investigation of the high risk of medication errors in health
care organizations. For this research, several questions were
developed that helped in descriptive analysis of nurse self report
related to medication error and the impact of workplace support
on such error (Sahay, Hutchinson &East, 2015).
b. Discuss the sampling
technique, inclusion and
exclusion criteria used for
the selection of sample in
the study
To select appropriate sample relevant to the study
purpose, Smeulers et al. (2014) used snowball
sampling technique to obtain the name of nurse
from different departments so that nurse with
varying experience and attitude towards
medication safety practices could be recruited. The
As the research focused on exploration of knowledge of graduate
nurse related to the study topic, the respondents were selected
from the database of graduates from three Australian university
school of nursing. Based on the review of graduate nurse who
had active email accounts, the survey link was emailed to
graduates. Sample size of 50 was taken as the minimum limit for

snowball sampling is a non probability sampling
technique where the purpose is to identify study
participants which are hard to find and the existing
study subjects recruit future sample group (Etikan,
Alkassim & Abubakar, 2016). This technique was
used in the research by initially approaching nursing
managers, their quality and safety innovators, and
nursing ward manager. They were then involved in
recruiting desired sample group.
The inclusion criteria for the research were that all
participants must be a registered nurse. The
sampling technique helped to recruit nurses with
diverse experience and education so that varying
perceptive could be collected.
the study and there were 58 recent graduates who completed the
survey using this process. Hence, from the above explanation, it is
understood that the main inclusion criteria was recent graduate
nurse. The above discussion shows that convenience sample was
used to collect data by directly emailing surveys to graduate and
not taking efforts to ensure that nurses are recruited after being
informed regarding the study purpose. No other exclusion criteria
and convenience sampling is a major weakness considering it was
a quantitative method of inquiry. It introduces risk of biases in
research data (Etikan, Alkassim & Abubakar, 2016).
c.Explore the data
collection method and its
appropriateness to the
research design of the
study
The data for the study was collected by means of
semi structured interview with individual
participants. The interview took place for one
month and the duration of the interview was 60–90
minutes. The interview mainly focused on collecting
data related to barriers and facilitators of safe
medication administration and participant’s
reflection on various safety practices (Smeulers et
Only survey was used as a data collection method for this study
and the survey was based on four questions. The four questions
were based on nature and extent of graduate nurse medications,
nature of nurse’s reporting about such errors, nature of
workplace support and relationships and impact of workplace
support on medication errors. The final list of survey questions
was based on 86 items and this mainly focused on identifying all
the four elements mentioned in the above four question. The

al. 2014). Since the interview method mainly
focused on collecting qualitative data related to the
study topic, the interview method is considered
appropriate as per the research design. This is
because interview is the common method of data
collection for qualitative inquiry and it facilitates
developing questionnaire based on research topic
and objectives. This method of data collection
helps to collect focused qualitative data relative to
the study question
strength of this survey tool was that it was based on evidence
based inquiry from five electronic databases. The final list of
questions was also developed after reliability of assessment. This
data collection method is appropriate for quantitative study as it
was based on evaluation of research variables using the five point
Likert scales. The score obtained for each question favoured
quantitative analysis of research data too. The method by which
the online survey question is prepared support descriptive
quantitative research design too.
3. Data analysis and
results (10 marks
600 words)
a.How was the data
analysed and was it
appropriate for the study?
Smeulers et al. (2014) conducted data analysis of
the interview response using MAXQDA10 software
and the interview process guideline for qualitative
research. This was followed by thematic analysis of
data by coding each interview independently and
comparing the code to develop relevant themes on
nurse’s experiences in preventing medication
administration error. Hence, thematic analysis was
the main method adapted for data analysis and the
The survey data was analysed using the SPSS package version 20
(Statistic Package for Social Sciences). This was useful for analysis
of quantitative data related to score obtained on Likert scale and
this would help to identify the rate of likelihood of each variables
during medication administration errors. In addition to this,
descriptive statistics were used to identify logical responses,
mean and standard deviation and significance of each research
variable (Sahay, Hutchinson & East, 2015). The use of these two
statistical methods is appropriate for quantitative analysis as this

validity of the process was maintained by using
two co authors for verifying the themes and
supporting the process using peer review method.
Use of thematic analysis is considered appropriate
for the study because this method is most
commonly used in qualitative research and
developing themes within research data facilitates
data interpretation process. It enhances the
credibility of the research process (Braun et al.,
2019).
can help to quantify research data and identify their significance
in relation to the study purpose. The main advantage of using
statistical tool in qualitative inquiry is that it helps to quantify
wide range of research phenomena and use them to identify
proper correlation between research findings.
b.What were the
findings/results of the
study?
Three specific themes emerged from the data
analysis of interview transcript. This includes nurse
role and responsibilities in medication safety, nurse
ability to work safely and nurse’s approval of the
safety processes in clinical setting. The nurse’s
perceptive in relation to the three themes gave the
idea that clinical reasoning is required to effectively
carry out role and responsibility, their ability to
work safely is influenced by risk knowledge and
work circumstances and feasibility of safety
interventions motivates nurse to accept safety
practice in daily care. This results gives the idea
The results of the survey revealed that about 60.3% of nurses
reported about medication errors. In case of form of support
available to reduce medication errors, presence of a graduate
nurse received maximum response followed by in service
education and use of educational packages. In addition, the
factors that prevented nurse from medication safety included
bullying and feeling pressured by prescribing doctors.
Disagreement was also found in relation to administering
medications administration advices and the person responsible
for errors (Sahay, Hutchinson & East, 2015). Hence, the most
significant outcome emerging from this quantitative study is that
hostile environment and disruptive behaviour leads to medication

that safe administration of medication among
nurse is dependent on the level of knowledge to
assess risk during medication administration and
work circumstances in which they work. The study
also supported the research findings with other
research literature where clinical reasoning and
care coordination improved the care process.
errors. It revealed the impact of poor communication between
health care team on medication error incidence. Confidence and
communication predicted safe practice towards medication
administration and lack of confidence negatively influenced nurse
practice towards safe medication administration too. The
significance of the study findings is that it has been supported
with findings from large sample study too.
c.Discuss the limitations
and recommendations of
the study?
Some of the limitations that affect the
generalisability of the research is that it was a single
centre study. Hence, conducting the research in
multiple studies would have strengthened the
quality of the research paper. However, the findings
can be transferred as the results were found to be
consistent with past research done on the topic.
Since the study finding revealed that knowledge
and work environment influence nurse’s
performance in relation to medication
administration safety, the study recommended
identifying strategies regarding how a nurse
manager can create an environment where
multiprofessional team can share their
responsibilities and any chance of medication error
There are many methodological limitations that affect the quality
of this study. Firstly, the method used recruit sample is a major
limitation because no ethical requirement was followed and
survey link was sent to student without approval from University
staffs. This may lead to ethical concerns during research. There is
also a possibility that all nurses might not be recent graduates
(Sahay, Hutchinson & East, 2015). Hence, the use of convenience
sampling method is a major limitation as it affects the ability to
select a representative target population. Another limitation is
the small sample size of 58. Since it was a quantitative study,
there was a scope to include many more samples in the survey.
However, since it is a descriptive quantitative research design,
this limitation can be ignored.
The key recommendation that has been proposed is to conduct
large scale research on impact of workplace support on incidence

is eliminated. The study also recommended
participation of nurse in continuing education in
relation to methods for promoting safety of patient.
of medication errors. It also gives the implication to develop
undergraduate continuing education programmes so that
graduate nurse can be adequately supported with education and
training to enhance their confidence in medication safety.
References:

Braun, V., Clarke, V., Hayfield, N., & Terry, G. (2019). Thematic analysis. Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences, 843-860.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Etikan, I., Alkassim, R., & Abubakar, S. (2016). Comparision of snowball sampling and sequential sampling technique. Biometrics and Biostatistics
International Journal, 3(1), 55.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (2017). Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Routledge.
Parry, A. M., Barriball, K. L., & While, A. E. (2015). Factors contributing to Registered Nurse medication administration error: A narrative
review. International journal of nursing studies, 52(1), 403-420.
Sahay, A., Hutchinson, M. & East, L., (2015). Exploring the influence of workplace supports and relationships on safe medication practice: A pilot study of
Australian graduate nurses. Nurse education today, 35(5), pp.e21-e26.
Smeulers, M., Onderwater, A. T., van Zwieten, M. C., & Vermeulen, H. (2014). Nurses' experiences and perspectives on medication safety practices: an
explorative qualitative study. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(3), 276-285.