AN INVESTIGATION INTO TYPES AND CAUSES OF MEDICATION ERRORS THAT OCCUR AMONG NURSES IN MADONNA UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL, ELELE, RIVERS STATE.

ABSTRACT Medication Errors (ME) are common causes of preventable death and a serious problem in clinical practice. It has long been associated with low quality nursing care services and more harm to patients. This study was aimed to investigate the types and causes of medication error that occur among nurses in Madonna UniversityTeachingHospital Elele, Rivers State. The research project was carried out in Madonna UniversityTeachingHospital Elele, RiversState. To achieve this four specific objectives were used and a descriptive research design was adopted. The instrument used for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire which yielded a positive correlational coefficient of 0.86. Data was analyzed using frequency and percentage presented in table. 80 nurses participated in the study. Findings showed that 100% of the respondents have heard about medication errors, 38(47.5%) , 50(62.5%) ,40(50%) , 38(47.5%) ,42(52.5%) of the respondent agree that high patient to nurse ratio, lack of monitoring and supervision during drug administration, difficulties in conveying physician handwriting, lack of knowledge of drug and phone call prescription respectively are some of the causes of medication error.Recommendations were made such as, In checkmating medication error, medical personnels should be called to order, Managers should create an atmosphere that is accommodating so that whenever an error is made, the nurse can easily report. Suggestions for further studies were made to find out how health care system can control the incidence of medication error. Keywords: Medication errors, investigation,Nurse, Implementation, prevention