Knowledge regarding medication errors and its legal implications among staff nurses

Introduction: Medication errors are recognised as one of the most significant threats to patient safety in the healthcare system worldwide. Nurses, positioned at the critical forefront of medication administration, has a vital responsibility of ensuring that patients receive the precise medications in the exact dosages and at the optimal times, thereby safeguarding patient safety and well-being. This study aims to assess the knowledge regarding medication errors and its legal implications among staff nurses and to assess the knowledge and to find the association between knowledge regarding medication errors, its legal implications and selected demographic variablesMaterials and Methods: A quantitative approach with descriptive survey design was utilised among 210 staff nurses selected from a selected hospitals at Kottayam District, Kerala, India through convenience sampling to evaluate the knowledge regarding medication errors in selected hospitals. Data was collected through a structured knowledge questionnaire. Results: Findings showed that 50% of the staff nurses had a good knowledge, 31.9% had excellent knowledge, 13.8% had average knowledge, and 4.3% had poor knowledge. There was a significant association between knowledge and variables such as previous encounter with medication errors (χ2 = 20.817, p = 0.000) and barriers to reporting errors (χ2 = 19.252, p = 0.023), whereas the age, educational qualification, experience, department, or disciplinary actions in staff nurses did not show any significance. Discussion: The study result suggested that most of the staff nurses had a good knowledge about medication errors and its legal implications.