Self-reported unsafe medication behaviour among clinical nurses in China: A nationwide survey

Unsafe medication behaviour was the direct cause of medication error, while the current status of unsafe medication behaviour among Chinese clinical nurses remains uncertain. To investigate unsafe medication behaviour among Chinese nurses and to analyse its associated factors.

A cross-sectional online study was conducted in 31 provinces and municipalities of mainland China.

The electronic self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from July-August 2020, including demographic information (age, gender, initial degree, ultimate education degree, hospital levels, unit nature, professional position, duty, departments, working years and working regions) and an adapted nurse unsafe medication behaviour scale measuring self-reported nurse unsafe medication behaviour (SR-NUMB). A generalized linear mixed model was applied to determine the influencing factors.

A total of 10,153 Chinese nurses responded online, and 7,873 responses that met the time control requirements were included finally. It turned out that 80.49% of Chinese nurses had SR-NUMB. Specifically, 72.81% of them had unsafe medication behaviours in the process of medication administration, followed by medication monitoring (53.09%), medication preservation and dispensing (47.42%), and medical order processing (44.53%). A generalized linear mixed model demonstrated that male nurses and nurses who work in secondary hospitals or general hospitals, those who have higher professional positions or duties, those who have been working for 5-10 years, and those who are working in emergency and intensive critical units may have higher level of SR-NUMB compared to other nurses.

Suboptimal SR-NUMB among Chinese nurses was identified in our findings. Associated factors, such as gender, hospital levels, unit nature, professional position, duty, working years and departments, should be targeted in future prevention and intervention efforts for safe medication management among Chinese nurses.