Medication Errors in Pediatric Patients

Study Notes

Medication errors are defined as preventable events that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, or family.
Pediatric patients are at higher risk of medication errors, with potential adverse drug events three times more common than in adults.
Factors contributing to increased risk of medication errors in pediatric patients include:
- Individualized dosages based on age, weight, body surface area, and clinical conditions, making each drug dose variable.
- Greater risk of error due to misplaced decimal points, resulting in tenfold dosing errors.
Medication errors in pediatric patients are more likely to lead to severe or fatal consequences compared to adult patients.

Rates of medication errors in pediatric patients vary widely, ranging from 3.9% to 36.5%.
The rate of error may be higher due to non-disclosure.
The variation in error rates may be attributed to the lack of conceptual clarity about what constitutes an error, different approaches to defining errors, and differences in reporting cultures.

Errors associated with the administration of medications occur in more than 25% of pediatric patients.
Nurses are primarily responsible for medication administration and therefore have a higher rate of medication error compared to doctors, pharmacists, or other healthcare professionals.
Nurses typically spend a minimum of 16% of their time preparing or administering medication and may administer 50 medications or more during a shift.

Sustainable and effective solutions for administration errors are not obvious.
Strategies to reduce medication errors need to be comprehensive and include a review of organizational systems and procedures that support safe administration practice.
Nurses' perceptions on why medication administration errors occur and ways to address them are essential to develop effective prevention strategies.