Table 1.
Characteristics of studies on ME included in our final review with their most frequent topics covered
| Categories of MEs | # of Studies | Publication Years | Units of Observation(# of studies) * | Study Design |
Most Frequent Topics Covered
(# of studies) ** |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sources of MEs | 12 | 2007-2012 | Cross-sectional |
Individuals (
10
)
Inadequate knowledge on medication (7) Miscalculation of dosages (6) Poor physical or mental health (4) Work environment (5) Heavy workload (4) Working over time (2) Nurses’ burnout (2) Little time spent with patient (2) Organization and management (4) Shortage of workforce (understaffing) (4) Team (4) Illegibility of orders or patient charts (4) Tasks (2) Lack of guidelines (2) Medications (2) Name similarity (2) |
|
| Under-reporting of MEs | 5 | 2008-2012 | Nursing staff (4) Nursing students (2) Personnel (1) Midwives (1) |
Cross-sectional |
Fears (
5
)
Being reprimanded (4) Receiving negative attitudes from patients or family members (2) Experiencing adverse drug consequences for patients (2) Being recognized as incompetent (2) Reporting process (5) Ignoring to report (5) Providing unclear MAE definition (4) Forgetting to report (3) Administrative barriers (4) Focusing on individual rather than system factors to address MAEs (4) Lacking of positive feedbacks (3) Putting much emphasis on MAEs as quality indicator of nursing care (2) |
| Preventing measures of MEs | 5 | 2008-2011 | Nurses (1) Nurse instructors(1) Hospital officials (1) Physicians (1) IV administration by nurses (1) |
Cross-sectional; Before – after clinical trial |
**** |
| Drugs involved in MEs | 11 | 2007-2012 | Nurses (1) Nursing students (4) IV administration by nurses (2) Administered doses by nurses (1) Infusion pump doses (1) Medical charts (1) Patients (1) |
Cross-sectional; Non-randomized clinical trial |
Anti-infectives for systemic use (9)*** Cardiovascular system (6)*** |
* A few studies included more than one units of observation. So, the total units of observations may surpass the total number of studies.
** Topics which had been covered in over 30% of studies were mentioned as most frequent.
*** Based on Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System.
**** Inconsistency of topics and the diversity of reporting limited us to provide 3 most frequent topics in this category.
MAEs: Medication Administration Errors, IV: Intravenous.