Correlation between medication errors with job satisfaction and fatigue of nurses

BACKGROUND Medication errors which can cause several medical malfunctions, have been in the spotlight recently. Job satisfaction and fatigue seems to be related to the increase of medication errors in nursing. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine the correlation between the amount and type of medication errors with job satisfaction and fatigue of nurses working in Shahid Sadoughi hospital in Yazd-Iran. METHODS This is a descriptive study by a cross-sectional and correlational approach conducted on all the nurses working in an educational hospital who have characteristics of samples. Participants were 170 nurses working in Shahid Sadooghi hospital in Yazd, Iran in 2012. The questionnaires of demographic characteristics, medication administration error and nurses' job satisfaction and fatigue by purposive sampling were used for gathering data. Validity and reliability were checked for internal consistency and stability. Data were analysed by SPSS version 17 using Pearson correlation coefficient and Independent-samples t-test. RESULTS The findings did not illustrate a significant relationship between job satisfaction and fatigue with medication errors. Among the demographic characteristics, age of nurses was significantly associated with the frequency of medication errors (p=0.037). However, others were not significantly correlated (p>0.05). CONCLUSION In spite of the findings, based on no significant statistical relationship between job satisfaction and fatigue with the type and amount of medication errors in nursing, the effect of these variables on medication errors cannot be disregarded; thus further studies in this area are suggested.