Aim: To explore nurses’ experiences with and perspectives on preventing medication administration errors.

Background Insight into nurses’ experiences with and perspectives on preventing
medication administration errors is important and can be utilised to tailor and
implement safety practices.
Methods A qualitative interview study of 20 nurses in an academic medical centre
was conducted between March and December of 2011.
Results Three themes emerged from this study: (1) nurses’ roles and
responsibilities in medication safety: aside from safe preparation and
administration, the clinical reasoning of nurses is essential for medication safety;
(2) nurses’ ability to work safely: knowledge of risks and nurses’ work
circumstances influence their ability to work safely; and (3) nurses’ acceptance of
safety practices: advantages, feasibility and appropriateness are important
incentives for acceptance of a safety practice.
Conclusions Nurses’ experiences coincide with the assumption that they are in a
pre-eminent position to enable safe medication management; however, their
ability to adequately perform this role depends on sufficient knowledge to assess
the risks of medication administration and on the circumstances in which they
work.
Implications for nursing management Safe medication management requires a
learning climate and professional practice environment that enables further
development of professional nursing skills and knowledge.