Nursing student medication errors: a snapshot view from a school of nursing's quality and safety officer

Medication errors are one of the most common types of errors in the health care arena. For more than a decade, health care providers have been challenged to improve patient safety outcomes, including medication administration issues. Nurse educators are challenged to provide didactic content and clinical experiences that will ensure students gain the knowledge necessary to administer medications in a safe manner. The aim of this article is to discuss nursing student medication errors identified at a university school of nursing, looking to categorize the errors into three areas: administration rights, system issues, and knowledge and understanding. Introducing nursing students to a reporting system early in their educational process can lead to increased transparency in error reporting and increased patient safety.