Addressing medication errors in an adult oncology department in Saudi Arabia: A qualitative study

• Main Authors: Waleed Alharbi, Jennifer Cleland, Zoe Morrison
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-07-01
• Series: Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016419300489

Objective: There is a wide range of strategies that could help in minimizing medication errors during healthcare delivery. We undertook a qualitative study to identify recommended solutions to minimize medication errors in an adult oncology department in Saudi Arabia from the perspectives of healthcare professionals. Methods: This was a qualitative study conducted in an adult oncology department in Saudi Arabia. After obtaining the required ethical approvals and written consents from the participants, seven focus group discussions were carried out for data collection. A stratified purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit medical doctors, pharmacists, and nurses. NVivo Pro version 11 was used for data analyses. Inductive content analysis was adopted in the coding of collected data. Result: Our study showed that improving organizational support, staff education, and communication could help in minimizing medication errors in the adult oncology department. Conclusion: The adoption of multiple strategies is required to improve the safety of the medication process in the adult oncology department. We argue that the availability of supportive leadership should be prioritized as it plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of both staff education and communication. Keywords: Medication errors, Adult Oncology, Saudi Arabia, Solutions, Qualitative study