Examining nursing students' awareness of various medical errors during clinical internships to enhance patient safety: A multi-center cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Patient safety is a global concern within health facilities, primarily attributed to medical errors, constituting a significant global public health issue. Patients experiencing medication errors face serious problems, with increasing mortality rates and escalating hospital costs.

Aim: The study aims to examine nursing students' awareness of various medical errors during their clinical internships at Al- Ahsa, identifying types of errors to enhance patient safety.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 160 nursing students during their internship at King Faisal University, Al Ahasa, Saudi Arabia.A total of 131 participants completed a self-administered questionnaire based on a medical error scale consisting of 43 items across six subscales. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. The outcomes of interest included falls, blood and blood Products transfusion, medication practices, care practices, communication, and controlled practices.

Results: Overall, nursing students scored 188 out of 215. Among the sub-dimension scores, medication practices received the highest mean score, while Patient falls emerged with the lowest score. In our study, students ranked falling as the least significant factor.

Conclusion: Study findings indicate that nursing students exhibit a low tendency to commit medical errors, which is encouraging for the future implementation of patient safety protocols. This trend suggests that nursing students are developing strong competencies in safe nursing practices, which contributes to reducing the incidence of medical errors and improving overall patient safety in clinical settings.

Fig 1. Response types for medical errors practices.

Fig 2. Cautious of students toward medical errors.