title: Medication error identification rates by pharmacy, medical, and nursing students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess and compare prescribing error-identification rates by health professional students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical, pharmacy, and nursing students were asked to complete a questionnaire on which they evaluated the accuracy of 3 prescriptions and indicated the type of error found, if any. The number of correctly identified prescribing errors and the number of correct types of errors identified were compared and error identification rates for each group were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred seventy-five questionnaires were returned (87% response rate). Pharmacy students had a significantly higher error-identification rate than medical and nursing students (p < 0.001). No significant differences were found between medical and nursing students (p = 0.88). Compared to medical students, pharmacy students more often were able to identify correctly the error type for each prescription (p < 0.001; p = 0.023; p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Of the 3 student groups, pharmacy students demonstrated a significantly higher error-identification rate, which may be associated with the greater number of pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics course hours that pharmacy students complete.
authors.affiliation: University of Arizona, Pharmacy Practice and Science, 1295 N. Martin Ave., PO Box 210202, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Terri L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Warholak
authors.forename: Caryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Queiruga
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roush
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Phan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000592:standards; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013337:Students, Medical; D013338:Students, Nursing; D013339:Students, Pharmacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult