Background: Intravenous medications have greater complexity and require multiple steps in their preparation and administration, which is considered a high risk for patients.
Objective: To determine the incidence of intravenous medications preparation and administration errors in critically ill patients.
Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional, prospective study design. The study was performed in Wad Medani Emergency Hospital, Sudan .
Results: All nurses working at the study setting were observed over nine days. During the study period, a total number of 236 drugs were observed and evaluated. The total error rate was 940 (33.4%), of which 136 (57.6%) errors with no harm, 93 (39.4%) errors with harm and 7 (3%) of errors associated with mortality. 17 different drug categories were involved, in which antibiotic was the highest error rate 104 (44.1%) and 39 different drugs were involved, in which metronidazole was the most drug involved 34 (14.4%). The total error rate was associated with nurse experience, OR (95% CI); 3.235 (1.834-5.706), and nurse education level, OR (95% CI); 0.125 (0.052-0.299).
Conclusion: The study reported high frequency of IV medications preparation and administration errors. Nurse education level, and experiences were influenced the total errors.
Keywords: ICU; IV medication; Preparation; administration.