Why nurses make medication errors: a simulation study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate about the communication problems in the team nursing systems, if the requests for medication between nurses happen. For this study, we developed a simulation involving a nurse giving a medication prepared by another nurse. Baseline data was collected from 100 third-year nursing students and 163 nurses of two municipal hospitals further subdivided into three groups by their service years. The responders attributing to the errors in the simulation were compared. As a result, the more service years the fewer nurses there were who attributed medication errors to no explanation and no confirmation between nurses. The nurses whose service years were less than five years had a low level of awareness regarding no explanation of a nurse leader requesting the medications as well as the students. These findings suggested that there is the possibility that some medication errors occur due to preoccupation that nurses feel it is less necessary to explain and confirm everything related to medication administrations as their length of service increase. Nurses have a communication problem that is influenced by the relationship in the workplace in the team nursing system. Therefore, the requests for medication should no be permitted.