Knowledge, Attitude and Associated factors towards Medication Error among Nurses Working at ICU in Public Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023
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Date
2023-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Medication errors are a significant concern in healthcare and among the most
prevalent types of medical errors. Medication errors can happen at any stage of the medication use
process: prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, and administering, and they can jeopardize the lives
of intensive care unit patients. In particular, these errors occur more frequently in intensive care
unit settings due to their unique medical framework. Currently, little is known about the knowledge
and attitudes of nurses working in the Ethiopian intensive care units regarding medication errors.
Objective: The aim of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and associated factors towards
medication error among nurses working in intensive care unit at selected public hospital, Addis-
Ababa, Ethiopia 2023
Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 122 randomly selected
nurses working in the ICUs of selected public hospitals in Addis Ababa from March 15 to April
15 ,2023. The data collection tool was developed by reviewing relevant literature and BSc nurses
who received training were responsible for data collection. The data was input into EPI-data
version 4.6 before being cleaned and analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science
(SPSS) version 26 software. To summarizes the findings, descriptive statistics were utilized, and
univariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship
between the outcome variable and independent variables using the Odds ratio. The significance of
statistical associations was tested with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and 𝑝-value (<0.05). Results
were presented with text, graphs, figures, and tables.
Result: The study involved 122 nurses. About 50.8% of the participants were male and the mean
age was 30.16 SD± 3.455years. A significant proportion of the respondent (75.5%) didn’t have
medication error reporting training before. This study showed that (n=72,59%) and (n=67,54.9) %
of nurses had inadequate knowledge and positive attitude regarding medication error respectively.
Training was strongly associated with adequate knowledge of the participant at p-value < 0.05
[AOR 2.688 ,95% CI (1.02,7.03)]). Sex [AOR 4.5, 95%CI (1.7,11.6)] and work experience [AOR
5.9 95%CI (2.1,16.5)] were strongly associated with the attitude of the participants at a p- value <
0.05.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Nurses were shown to have inadequate knowledge and
positive attitudes towards medication errors. However, there was a significant association between
knowledge level and training. It is therefore recommended to provide in-service training for nurses
to enhance their understanding of safe medication management and reporting of medication errors.
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Keywords
Knowledge, Attitudes, Nurses, Medication error