jnur.7.3.13789 Factors Contributing to Medication Errors in a Tertiary Care Private Hospital, Karachi Sehrish Sajjad Ambreen Gowani Anyla Kazmi Shireen Mansoor Journal on Nursing 2231–4504 7 3 28 35 10.26634/jnur.7.3.13789 Medication Errors, Medication Safety, Perceived Factors Medication management requires multidisciplinary collaboration among nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and others. Nurses play an important role in the final step of the process and can elicit a critical role in its prevention. In an effort to prevent medication errors committed by nurses at a hospital, the authors conducted a study to identify frequency, types, and perceived factors of medication errors. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was employed in a private tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. A sample of 119 nurses were recruited from different units of the hospital. Perceived facilitating factors for medication safety and contributing factors for medication errors were identified using researcherdeveloped self-reported questionnaire. The prevalence of medication errors was found to be 21%. More than half of the reported errors by nurses (52%) occurred within six months of their clinical practice and during their night shifts (56%). The most prevalent type of error was administering wrong dose to a patient (48%). Factors that were perceived to contribute to medication errors were: documentation by nurses prior to medication administration (54.6%), shortage of nursing staff (32.8%), and environmental interruptions during medication preparation (26.3%). Factors which were perceived to enhance medication safety included: appropriately labeled medications by pharmacists (55.5%), delivery of precalculated doses from pharmacy (63.9%), and preparation of medications solely by the assigned nurse (51.3%) Providing electronic medication administration system is a key in limiting and preventing medication errors committed at any phase of the medication management process. August - October 2017 Copyright © 2017 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=13789