[The association between dispensing error factors and behavioral characteristics of pharmacists]

We evaluated error prevention education by clarifying the association between dispensing error factors and behavioral characteristics of pharmacists. The subjects were 98 pharmacists (27 men and 71 women) with a mean age of 29.7 years who gave informed consent for participation in our survey. Between November 2001 and January 2002, a questionnaire survey on dispensing errors was performed using the "Tokyo University Egogram, New Version" for the assessment of behavioral characteristics and the "Safety Behavior Questionnaire" for the assessment of error factors. An association was observed between the incidence of dispensing errors and behavioral characteristics. There was also an association between error contents and behavioral characteristics as well as error factors. With more experience, errors associated with becoming accustomed increased, suggesting that error prevention education is necessary not only for newly qualified pharmacists but also for managers.