Nursing student medication errors involving tubing and catheters: A descriptive study

SummaryThis retrospective case study examined reports (N = 27) of medication errors made by nursing students involving tubing and catheter misconnections. Characteristics of misconnection errors included attributes of events recorded on MEDMARX® error reports of the United States Pharmacopeia. Two near miss errors or Category B errors (medication error occurred, did not reach patient) were identified, with 21 Category C medication errors (occurred, with no resulting patient harm), and four Category D errors (need for increased patient monitoring, no patient harm) reported. Reported intravenous tubing errors were more frequent than other type of tubing errors and problems with clamps were present in 12 error reports. Registered nurses discovered most of the errors; some were implicated in the mistakes along with the students.