Voluntary Medication Error Reporting by ED Nurses: Examining the Association With Work Environment and Social Capital

Medication errors are one of the most frequently occurring errors in health care settings. The complexity of the ED work environment places patients at risk for medication errors. Most hospitals rely on nurses' voluntary medication error reporting, but these errors are under-reported. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among work environment (nurse manager leadership style and safety climate), social capital (warmth and belonging relationships and organizational trust), and nurses' willingness to report medication errors.

A cross-sectional descriptive design using a questionnaire with a convenience sample of emergency nurses was used. Data were analyzed using descriptive, correlation, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis statistics.

A total of 71 emergency nurses were included in the study. Emergency nurses' willingness to report errors decreased as the nurses' years of experience increased (r = -0.25, P = .03). Their willingness to report errors increased when they received more feedback about errors (r = 0.25, P = .03) and when their managers used a transactional leadership style (r = 0.28, P = .01).

ED nurse managers can modify their leadership style to encourage error reporting. Timely feedback after an error report is particularly important. Engaging experienced nurses to understand error root causes could increase voluntary error reporting.