Nurses spend ~40% of their work time doing medication management.   All nurses are taught basic medication administration techniques and have many opportunities to practice what they learn. However, mistakes do occur. A recent two part article written by authors from the School of Nursing in Dublin, Ireland looked at the issue in depth.   Did you know?

• Most medication errors occur with experienced nurses, not novices.
• Interruptions are a major cause of medication errors, however, they can be mitigated somewhat by clearly marking medication preparation areas as 'do not disturb' areas.
• Math skills can present a challenge; in one test, 65% of nurses scored <70% on a math test. Even when using a calculator, 10% of their calculations were incorrect.

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