The role of nursing education in preventing medication errors in Botswana

Medication errors frequently feature in research world-wide. Although medication errors are also a concern in medicine and anesthesia, they have become a regular topic in nursing. In Botswana, a country challenged by shortage of both medications and professionals qualified to process and administer medications, as well as low levels of health literacy, the risk of medications errors should be even higher.In Botswana nurses are deployed in both acute and primary care settings taking an active part in prescription, transcription, dispensing and administration of medications. Pre-service nursing education must therefore ensure that students are equipped with knowledge and skills on medication management and prevention of medication errors to prepare them for safe practice.In this paper, the authors take stock of the extent to which nursing curricula address the prevention of medication errors, highlighting strengths and pinpointing weaknesses yet to be addressed. The exercise involved review of curricula at various levels of nursing education as well as nursing regulatory documents. Findings from the review were corroborated with published work on the subject. Recommendations for strengthening basic nursing curricula at both diploma and undergraduate levels’ coverage of medications errors are proposed. Also recommended are measures to improve the system in the practice arena as well as research to establish the magnitude of medication errors and their related risk factors in Botswana. The exercise is envisaged to improve patients’ safety and reduce the risk of litigation for nurses.