title: Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of intern doctors to medication prescribing errors in a Nigeria tertiary hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Junior doctors are reported to make most of the prescribing errors in the hospital setting.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the following study is to determine the knowledge intern doctors have about prescribing errors and circumstances contributing to making them.
  
  
  METHODS
  A structured questionnaire was distributed to intern doctors in National Hospital Abuja Nigeria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Respondents gave information about their experience with prescribing medicines, the extent to which they agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error and events that constituted such. Their experience with prescribing certain categories of medicines was also sought.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 17 (SPSS Inc Chicago, Ill, USA). Chi-squared analysis contrasted differences in proportions; P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate was 90.9% and 27 (90%) had <1 year of prescribing experience. 17 (56.7%) respondents totally agreed with the definition of a clinically meaningful prescribing error. Most common reasons for prescribing mistakes were a failure to check prescriptions with a reference source (14, 25.5%) and failure to check for adverse drug interactions (14, 25.5%). Omitting some essential information such as duration of therapy (13, 20%), patient age (14, 21.5%) and dosage errors (14, 21.5%) were the most common types of prescribing errors made. Respondents considered workload (23, 76.7%), multitasking (19, 63.3%), rushing (18, 60.0%) and tiredness/stress (16, 53.3%) as important factors contributing to prescribing errors. Interns were least confident prescribing antibiotics (12, 25.5%), opioid analgesics (12, 25.5%) cytotoxics (10, 21.3%) and antipsychotics (9, 19.1%) unsupervised.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Respondents seemed to have a low awareness of making prescribing errors. Principles of rational prescribing and events that constitute prescribing errors should be taught in the practice setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, National Hospital Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Adetutu A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ajemigbitse
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Moses Kayode
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Omole
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Abuja, Vatican Street, Saburi District, Abuja, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Nnamdi Chika
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Ezike
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Wilson O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Erhun
keywords: Hospital setting; internship training; junior doctors; prescribing errors