title: Medication Error Reporting Rate and its Barriers and Facilitators among Nurses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medication errors are among the most prevalent medical errors leading to morbidity and mortality. Effective prevention of this type of errors depends on the presence of a well-organized reporting system. The purpose of this study was to explore medication error reporting rate and its barriers and facilitators among nurses in teaching hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences(Iran).
  
  
  METHODS
  In a descriptive study in 2011, 733 nurses working in Urmia teaching hospitals were included. Data was collected using a questionnaire based on Haddon matrix. The questionnaire consisted of three items about medication error reporting rate, eight items on barriers of reporting, and seven items on facilitators of reporting. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics in SPSS14 .
  
  
  RESULTS
  The rate of reporting medication errors among nurses was far less than medication errors they had made. Nurses perceived that the most important barriers of reporting medication errors were blaming individuals instead of the system, consequences of reporting errors, and fear of reprimand and punishment. Some facilitating factors were also determined.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the rate of medication errors was found to be much more than what had been reported by nurses. Therefore, it is suggested to train nurses and hospital administrators on facilitators and barriers of error reporting in order to enhance patient safety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Snor
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bayazidi
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Development Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Yadolah
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zarezadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zamanzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Kobra
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Parvan
keywords: Hospital; Medication errors; Nurses; Patient safety; Reporting