The relationship between nursing specialty certification and medication administration errors and incident reporting

This study used quantitative and qualitative methodologies to determine whether a difference exists between specialty certified and non-certified nurses in terms of medication administration errors and incident reporting. In the 1999 Institute of Medicine report, “To Err is Human”, medication administration errors were estimated to account for over 7,000 deaths annually with a nationwide health care cost of {dollar}17 billion. Styles (1997) of the American Nurse's Credentialing Center argued that “nurses certified above minimum standards improve the quality of patient care”. To date, there has been little research in which the connection between certification and the patient outcomes has been documented.; Characteristics of the samples included certification status, education level, and years experience. The findings of this study demonstrated a significant difference between certified nurses and non-certified nurses for the types of errors committed but not for the severity of errors committed. Distractions were cited in all three methodologies as a possible cause of errors. Another finding dealt with fear of reporting. In the survey, both groups responded that some medication errors are not reported because nurses are afraid to report an error due to fear. Fear of reporting was often mentioned in the interviews as the fear of “being labeled as a bad nurse”.; Two themes emerged in reading the interview transcripts. The first, “The Subjective Nature of the Medication Error”, dealt with what constitutes a medication error and the idea that if there was no patient harm or the medication could be rescheduled, then no error occurred. The second theme, “Changing a Broken System”, described the concerns for the system processes involved in medication administration and that quality and true caring for the patients are becoming lost in the technologies involved in the system.; The findings of this study demonstrated that certification status had little bearing on medication administration errors or knowledge about these errors and incident reporting. The contribution of certification in terms of patient outcomes remains elusive. However, healthcare quality will continue to be of paramount importance to public safety and further studies of certification status in terms of other nursing quality indicators may yield more promising results.