Medication Error Reporting Barriers: A Report from Tabuk Region

This report presents a study on the barriers to medication error reporting among nurses in the Tabuk region of Saudi Arabia. The research explored the challenges nurses face when reporting medication administration errors, including time constraints related to incident report completion and contacting physicians, unclear definitions of medication terms, fear of adverse consequences, and negative attitudes from patients or families. The study also examined issues such as the mismatch between administrative responses and the severity of errors and the potential for blame directed towards nurses. The findings, based on demographic data and statistical analysis using SPSS, highlight key factors influencing nurses' willingness to report errors and contribute to understanding how to improve patient safety within healthcare settings.

Running head: BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
Barriers to report the medication error
Name of the student:
Name of the university
Author note:

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BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
Barriers to report medication error:
This chapter of the study aims to provide the summary of the identified barriers to the
reporting of medication administration errors among nurses in Tabuk region Saudi Arabia. The
primary aim of the study was to explore barriers to medical administration error reporting among
nurses in Tabuk and to identify the reason for medication administration errors. This chapter of
the study will provide barriers to medical administration error reporting among nurses in the
Tabuk region with the assistance of the demographic data. Medication errors are common and
preventable adverse drug events that represent a major cause of harm in the hospital setting.
Consequently, medication errors threaten patient safety in the clinical care setting (Aljadhey, et
al., 2014). Therefore, the study aimed to explore the barriers and obtain the data. The barriers to
reporting the medication errors that identified from the data include
• The time required for Filling out an incident report for medication errors
• The time required for contact the physician regarding medication errors
• Unclear definition of the medication error and abbreviation used for the medical term
• Development of a negative attitude by the patient or family toward the nurse
• Fear of adverse consequences after reporting medication errors
• The mismatch between the response by nursing administration and the severity of the
error
• Blame to nurses for breaching patient’s safety.

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BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
The time required for Filling out an incident report for medication errors:
The demographic data suggested that a significant number of nurses conducted the
medication error in their study period and never reported the error where the majority of them
were female since female nurses are the dominating in the profession. In every clinical setting
there a protocol for filling the incident report if any medication error occurred during
administrating any medication to the patients (Vrbnjak et al., 2016). The demographic data
suggested that the majority of the nurses stated lengthy instructions, time taken for filling of the
incident report as the issues that is avoided by the majority of nurses. Data obtained from the
study reported that 41 participants agreed that the filling of the incident report was time-
consuming where 15 of the participants were strongly agreed and 26 were moderately agreed.
Therefore, the exploration of the study identified the time for filling the incident report as one of
the major barriers to reporting medication error.
The time required to contact the physician regarding medication errors:
The demographic data suggested that while medication errors occur in the clinical setting,
the physician must know the details of the medical error. Without the reporting of the
medication error, the management of the medication is not possible. However, during the
interview, the majority of the nurses stated that since it is time-consuming to contact the
physician regarding the medication errors they avoid reporting it. Consequently, the question
arises regarding patient safety. Post-graduation nursing experience acts as the reason behind the

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BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
time taken by nurses to contact the physician after identifying the medication error. Data
obtained from the study reported that 37 nurses agreed with this issue were 12 individuals
strongly agreed and 25 individual moderately agreed. Therefore, Time required for contact the
physician is identified as the second barrier.
Unclear definition of the medication and abbreviation used for terms:
Demographic data suggested that majority of the medication error takes due to the
unclear definition of the medicines, similar name of the medications and the shorter abbreviation
used for the medication. El Mahalli (2015), stated that the prime reason behind this issues lack of
proper knowledge, use of verbal communication rather than and sometimes they do not
recognize it as a medication error. Hence, they do not report the medication error. Moreover, the
language also acts as a barrier since a considerate number of time nurses failed to follow the
orders of the physicians (Alsafi et al., 2015). Therefore, Lack of proper clarity of the orders by a
physician in a clinical setting leads to the wrong administration of the medication. Data obtained
from the study reported that 33 nurses described this issue, as the barriers to the reporting where
25 nurses moderately agreed and 8 nurses strongly agreed. Therefore, the challenge of the
unclear definition of the medication and abbreviation used during the instruction are identified as
the third barrier to reporting.
Fear of adverse consequences after reporting medication errors:
In the clinical setting, a considerate number of nurses experienced the adverse effect of
reporting medication errors, which further leads to affect their mental stability. Significant

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BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
number nurses suffer from anxiety and trauma due to the adverse consequences of the
medication error. In few hospital setting, there is a lack of adequate staffs who are skilled at
proper document the medication errors committed by a specific nurse (Mahalli, 2015).
Consequently, it breaches the patient safety and leads to the increase of the global burden of
disease. The demographic data suggested that 69 nurses stated that they become apprehensive
because of the negative consequences of medication errors. Ethnicity is identified as the major
factor for the fear of adverse consequences due to different cultural beliefs. Consequently, it
leads to more medication erode in the clinical field.
Development of a negative attitude by the patient or family toward the nurse:
A significant number of nurses avoid reporting medication errors because of
apprehension. The prime reason behind it is the negative attitude of the patients or family
member towards the nurses, which is partially influenced by age, gender, and previous personal
experiences (Sears et al., 2016). Lack of communication and identified as another reason where
nurse avoids reporting the medication error in order to avoid further negative outcomes.
Demographic data of the study reported that seven nurses described this issue as the significant
one where 44 nurses moderate agreed and 27 nurses strongly agreed. Although, this is identified
as the barriers to report the existence of the barriers also varies depending on the perspective.
The mismatch between the response by nursing administration and the
severity of the error:

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BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
A study by Almutairi (2015), suggested that due to lack of sound knowledge about the
medication and associated errorS, even if the majority of nurses report medication error, they
failed to recognize the severity of the medication error, which affected the patient safety. Since
nurses are the frontline health professional, a considerate number of time physicians blindly
follow the improper documentation of the medication error (Sears et al., 2016). Furthermore, the
interventions are also designed based on the improper documentation. The demographic data of
the study suggested that 63 nurses identified this as the barriers of proper reporting of the
medication error where 19 nurses strongly agreed with this issue and 44 nurses moderately
agreed with this issue.
Blame to nurses for breaching patient’s safety:
In the clinical setting, a considerate number of nurses stated that reporting the medication
to have negative consequences such as nurses portrayed as the liable for committing medication
error and breaching associated patient safety (Talal, 2015). In the majority of the cases, hospital
authority focused on the individual nurse responsible for the medication error rather than
focusing on the system, which is a potential reason for the medication error (Aboshaiqah, 2016).
Therefore, these adverse consequences implant fear and anxiety within nurses. They suffer from
anxiety, depression, and professional burn out where post-graduation years and personal
experience as nurses plays huge (Sears et al., 2016). Demographic data suggested that 114 nurses
identified this issue as the major issue since the highest number of nurses described it as the
major barrier of the reporting. Seventy-five nurses strongly agreed with the issues whereas thirty-
nine nurses moderately agreed with the nursing interventions.

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BARRIERS TO REPORT THE MEDICATION ERROR
These major barriers can be resolved by the proper implementation of the policies,
legislation and proper interventions.
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