Educational preparedness and perceived importance on confidence in new graduate registered nurses' medication...

Medication errors are the most common type of error affecting patient safety and the most preventable cause of adverse medical events globally. Medication errors occur most frequently (33.3 %) during the administration phase. New nurses felt their education left them vulnerable to errors, suggesting that current curricula may be insufficient.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between new nurses' educational preparedness and perceived importance with confidence in medication administration. A secondary aim was to determine the difference in the variables based on demographic information.

A descriptive, correlational design was employed using the Theory of Human Error. Ohio newly licensed nurses were surveyed for their educational preparedness, perceived importance, and confidence in nine medication competencies. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used.

N = 201. A significant, positive relationship was found between both educational preparedness and confidence, and perceived importance and confidence. Nurses reported high levels of educational preparedness, perceived importance, and confidence. All correlations and regressions were significant, indicating that as nurse educational preparedness and/or perceived importance increases, the odds of confidence increases. Demographic analysis demonstrated that practice area and years of experience significantly contributed to differences in the variables.

Understanding the educational preparedness and perceived importance of the medication competencies can help guide future research into creating educational and clinical interventions to ultimately decrease medication errors.