title: Signposting the causes of medication errors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medication errors are a universal problem, but the causes and solutions are uncertain.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This commentary contextualizes an important paper describing the medication error problem in one hospital in Iran.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Medication errors may be an important link between poor employment conditions for nurses and less favourable patient outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper, taken with other observational work, suggests that intervention studies to test strategies to reduce medication errors may be key to improving patient outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, School of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, UK. s.e.jordan@swansea.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jordan
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D057189:Checklist; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D015399:Nursing Research; D012307:Risk Factors; D017751:Safety Management; D017132:Workplace