SAFE MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION

The purpose of this body of work was to address medication errors and safe medication administration practices in relation to practicing nurses and nursing students via several different approaches. These different approaches will be presented as three separate papers but interrelated themes. The specific purpose for each paper and the corresponding research questions were addressed individually in each chapter. The approach used in the first paper was a systematic literature search of medication administration errors and the pediatric population; five themes emerged including the incidence rate of medication administration errors, specific medications involved in medication administration errors and classification of the errors, why medication administration errors occur, medication error reporting, and interventions to reduce medication errors. The approach used in the second paper included a systematic literature review and implementation of a survey, both focusing on the assessment strategies for safe medication administration with practicing nurses and nursing students. Results of both the review and the survey indicated a lack of a comprehensive assessmen