Medication errors are the commonest form of medical error whereby medications are wrongfully prescribed or used by the patients while in the care of a health professional. Assessing the factors associated with medication error underreporting is a crucial step in identifying and proffering solutions in order to avoid re-occurrence and minimize the unpleasant effect it has on the patient, healthcare professional, facility or the general public. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used to study the factors associated with medication error underreporting. It was carried out among 520 health care professionals comprising of Medical doctors, Pharmacists and Nurses who work in Nigerian Air Force Hospital Ikeja. A semi structured, pre tested questionnaire was randomly distributed to 249 respondents which formed the sample size as calculated using the Slovin’s formular. Findings from this study shows 106 (51.4%) of the respondents which represents more than half strongly agreed that poor working condition was a major factor to under reporting of medication error from the managerial point. Also, 101(49%), 96(46.6%) and 94(45.6%) of the respondents strongly agreed that the other factors included; poor reward system to self-medication reporting, poor utilization of information system to detect and analyze error and unclear channel of communication respectively. Employee factors to medication underreporting recorded was fear of some variables including, litigation (61.2%), criticism (54.4%) and fear of being seen as incompetent (50.5%). It is therefore recommended that management should make it a point of duty to ensure a conducive working environment is created, that employees work under a stress-free environment and that their welfare carted for and importantly ensure that a clear reporting system is put in place which will aid voluntary error reporting.
Keywords: Factors, health care professionals, medication error underreporting
