The malpractices of student nurses in clinical practice in Turkey and their causes

Abstract

Objective: The study was conducted to identify whether or not student nurses made the medical errors as well as the reasons for the errors. Methods: A study was conducted with 1067 student nurses studying at 12 universities in Turkey. The data were collected by using medical error scale and a questionnaire on demographic characteristics and malpractices. Results: Overall 28% of the student nurses performed malpractice during clinical practice. Medical errors included failure of complying with sterility and asepsis rules (32%), wrong identification of patient identity (19%), and administrating wrong dosage of medications (12%). They obtained a mean score of 4.19 +/- 0.62 from the overall scale and the lowest score was 3.9 +/- 0.78 for drug administrations. Conclusion: Nursing students perform considerable amount of malpractice and they should especially improve concerning administration of drugs.