Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

The approach of pharmacy students towards communication of medication errors in Karachi, Pakistan

Wajiha Iffat¹ , Riffat Yasmin¹, Sadia Shakeel¹, Fariya Zafar², Shehla Imam³, Abida Sultana⁴, Tehseen Quds¹, Yumna Nida Yousuf¹

¹Dow College of Pharmacy, Dow University of Health Sciences; ²Faculty of Pharmacy, Zia uddin Medical University; ³Faculty of Pharmacy, Jinnah University for Women; ⁴Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Wajiha Iffat Email: wajiha.iffat@duhs.edu.pk Tel:+923343422348

Received: 27 December 2014 Accepted: 2 October 2015 Published: 27 December 2015

Citation: Iffat W, Yasmin R, Shakeel S, Zafar F, Imam S, Sultana A, et al. The approach of pharmacy students towards communication of medication errors in Karachi, Pakistan. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(12):2293-2297 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i12.20

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To assess pharmacy students’ knowledge of communicating medication errors in Karachi, Pakistan.

Methods: The study design was cross-sectional and conducted from February to May 2014. A previously validated questionnaire was adopted, modified and distributed to final year pharmacy students in four universities of Karachi. Descriptive statistics were used to present students’ demographic information and their response to the questionnaire items. Pearson chi square test and Logistic regression model were executed to evaluate the association of gender and institution of students with their response.

Results: Out of 600 survey questionnaires distributed, only 464 were returned in useable form, giving a response rate of 77.33 %. A majority of the students showed moderately positive attitude towards general communication and training in communicating medication errors. More than 40 % of the respondents were not satisfied with the training they received in communicating and reporting incidence of medication errors. Incorrect drug (14.65 %), incorrect dose (8.40 %) and improper storage of medicines (7.97 %) were the most common errors observed by the students during clerkship.

Conclusion: The findings indicate the need for a more standardized approach to improving knowledge of medication errors as well as training in the communication of occurrence of medication errors.

Keywords: Communication, Medication error, Pharmacy students, Standardized training