Malak Alsaif
King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Gen Med
Background & Aim: Medication errors have become a serious patient safety issue due to the increasing rates of morbidity and mortality associated with such errors. Despite the high incidence of medication errors, underreporting is still highly prevalent. To promote patient safety, the reporting of medication errors, whether clinically significant or not, is extremely important and should be encouraged. This study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude of health practitioners on medication error reporting in a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Method: A cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted among a convenient sample of 62 physicians and 303 nurses at KAMC in 2017. Data was collected using a newly developed self-administered questionnaire which was pilot tested on 40 subjects for validation and reliability analysis (Cronbach alpha=0.85). SPSS version 23 was used for data management and analysis. The association of knowledge and attitude with several predictors was assessed using binary and multivariable logistic regression and odds ratio was reported. Level of significance was set at a p-value of less than 0.05. Result: The sample consisted of 365 subjects, almost all of which (97%) had sufficient knowledge about medication errors reporting. Regarding the reporting practice, some participants (21.6%) would prefer to educate those who did a medication error rather than reporting it. Almost half of the participants (44.8%) did not report any medication error during their work experience. Bivariate associations of knowledge and attitude with the predictors revealed significant associations of knowledge with gender, nationality, location of training and profession (p<0.05). Conclusion: Despite the sufficient knowledge and favorable attitude toward medication error reporting, there is still under reporting of medication errors. Further research should be done to identify the barriers toward reporting medication errors.
Malak Alsaif is a senior student of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) currently studying at University of King Saud Bin Abdulaziz for Health Sciences in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia enrolled in 2012 and expected to graduate in 2018. A student member of King Abdullah International Medical and Research Center (KAIMRC) and a researcher in the National Stem Cell Research Laboratory.
E-mail: malak.alsaif@gmail.com
