Learning from Medication Incidents in Children
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Learning from medication incidents in children: a mixed methods analysis of reported medication incidents involving children in hospital in Northern Ireland
IRAS ID
185774
Contact name
Richard Conn
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 2 days
Research summary
Medication errors are common in children and can lead to significant harm, but there is an incomplete understanding of their nature and why they occur. Critical incident reporting – the process by which hospital staff can record and report adverse incidents which could compromise patient safety is an important source of data about medication errors, but no previous research has qualitatively analysed paediatric incident data to elicit potential causative factors. The objective of this study is to assess the nature of reported medication errors which have occurred in children in Northern Ireland, and to establish underlying themes which have contributed to their occurrence.
The study will retrospectively analyse anonymised incident reports relating to medication errors which have occurred in children in hospital in Northern Ireland from 20102015. A mixed methods approach will be adopted: firstly, data will be classified according to categorical variables such as type and severity of error; subsequently, thematic analysis of the narrative accounts within the incident reports relating to prescribing and administration errors will be carried out. The research team will assign codes to the data to elicit themes. The study will take place between July and November, 2015. The sponsor of the study will be Queen’s University Belfast; no additional funding is required.
It is hoped that this study will lead to a deeper understanding of the factors which contribute to medication errors in paediatrics. In terms of impact, this work will be presented locally to experts in paediatric patient safety, to allow targeted interventions to be brought into place to prevent medication errors. More widely, the work will be published to offer insight into factors which contribute to medication errors in children, and give rise to further research into why errors occur and ways in which they can be prevented.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0353
Date of REC Opinion
28 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion