title: The effectiveness of risk management program on pediatric nurses' medication error.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medication therapy is one of the most complex and high-risk clinical processes that nurses deal with. Medication error is the most common type of error that brings about damage and death to patients, especially pediatric ones. However, these errors are preventable. Identifying and preventing undesirable events leading to medication errors are the main risk management activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a risk management program on the pediatric nurses' medication error rate.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a quasi-experimental one with a comparison group. In this study, 200 nurses were recruited from two main pediatric hospitals in Tehran. In the experimental hospital, we applied the risk management program for a period of 6 months. Nurses of the control hospital did the hospital routine schedule. A pre- and post-test was performed to measure the frequency of the medication error events. SPSS software, t-test, and regression analysis were used for data analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the intervention, the medication error rate of nurses at the experimental hospital was significantly lower (P < 0.001) and the error-reporting rate was higher (P < 0.007) compared to before the intervention and also in comparison to the nurses of the control hospital.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the results of this study and taking into account the high-risk nature of the medical environment, applying the quality-control programs such as risk management can effectively prevent the occurrence of the hospital undesirable events. Nursing mangers can reduce the medication error rate by applying risk management programs. However, this program cannot succeed without nurses' cooperation.
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dehghan-Nayeri
authors.affiliation: Amir Alam Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fariba
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bayat
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery,Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Tahmineh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Salehi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatictics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Soghrat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Faghihzadeh
keywords: Iran; medication error; nurse; risk management; self-report