Interventions to Minimize Medication Error by Nurses in Intensive Care: A Scoping Review Protocol

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Quality

Background:

• Medication errors pose significant risks in healthcare, particularly threatening patient safety and care quality within nursing practice.
• Intensive care units (ICUs) are complex environments where numerous factors contribute to medication errors.
• Identifying and mitigating these factors is crucial for healthcare organizations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review to identify interventions and strategies aimed at minimizing medication errors made by nurses.
• To map specific interventions effective in reducing medication errors in the ICU setting.
• To recognize factors influencing medication errors by nurses to inform practice mitigation.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review will be performed following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology.
• Comprehensive literature searches will be conducted across databases including EbscoHost (CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE), Embase, and PubMed.
• Data extraction, analysis, and synthesis will be performed independently by two reviewers.

Main Results:

• This review will map interventions specific to minimizing medication errors by nurses in intensive care.
• It will identify factors that influence medication errors by intensive care nurses.
• The findings will help mitigate practices that may lead to medication errors.

Conclusions:

• This scoping review provides a framework for understanding and addressing medication errors by ICU nurses.
• The identified interventions and factors will support the development of targeted strategies to improve patient safety.
• This research contributes to enhancing the quality of care in critical care settings through error reduction.