Background: Medication errors are a serious and complex problem in clinical practice, especially in intensive care\nunits whose patients can suffer potentially very serious consequences because of the critical nature of their diseases\nand the pharmacotherapy programs implemented in these patients. The origins of these errors discussed in the\nliterature are wide-ranging, although far-reaching variables are of particular special interest to those involved in\ntraining nurses. The main objective of this research was to study if the level of knowledge that critical-care nurses\nhave about the use and administration of medications is related to the most common medication errors.\nMethods: This was a mixed (multi-method) study with three phases that combined quantitative and qualitative\ntechniques. In phase 1 patient medical records were reviewed; phase 2 consisted of an interview with a focus\ngroup; and an ad hoc questionnaire was carried out in phase 3.\nResults: The global medication error index was 1.93%. The main risk areas were errors in the interval of\nadministration of antibiotics (8.15% error rate); high-risk medication dilution, concentration, and infusion-rate errors\n(2.94% error rate); and errors in the administration of medications via nasogastric tubes (11.16% error rate).\nConclusions: Nurses have a low level of knowledge of the drugs they use the most and with which a greater\nnumber of medication errors are committed in the ICU.
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