a survey of frequency and type of medical errors done by nursing students of urmia medical sciences university in 1390

a survey of frequency and type of medical errors done by nursing students of urmia medical sciences university in 1390     ebrahimi rigi tanha z [1] , baghaei r [2] , feizi a [3] *     received: 16 nov, 2011 accepted: 5 jan, 2012     abstract   background & aim: medication errors are among the most common medical errors. nursing students may commit these errors. thus, the aim of this study is to determine the frequency and type of medication errors done by nursing students.   materials & methods : in this descriptive study, 54 senior (7th and 8th semesters) students of urmia nursing and midwifery school were recruited by census. data were gathered by a structured questionnaire and were analyzed through descriptive statistics.   results: the highest error was done in the medicine phase (87.3%). the most common error reported was giving the medication later or earlier than its prescribed time (20.7%) and the next one was to forget giving the prescribed medication to patients (14.7%). antibiotics were the most common drugs on which the error was done.   conclusion : the results of this study showed that the frequency of medication error done by nursing students is high. therefore the universities have to include some effective strategies in their training programs in order to avoid medication errors and improve the patients' safety.   keywords : patient safety, medication error, nursing student     address: nursing and midwifery faculty, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran, tel: (+98) 9144462770   email : [email protected]   [1] master student, faculty of nursing, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran  [2] assistant professor, faculty of nursing and midwifery school, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran   [3] assistant professor, faculty of nursing and midwifery school, urmia university of medical sciences, urmia, iran (corresponding author)