CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

INTRODUCTION

Over the past two to three decades, the role of nurses in patient care has greatly

expanded and this expansion has led to substantial increase in the number of nursing medical

malpractice lawsuits being filed each year. Nursing malpractice claims typically arise in relation to

medication errors, including incorrect dosage, administering the wrong drug, incorrect method of

administration, in failure to assess for side effects and toxicity; failure to monitor and assess a patients

condition; and failure to supervise a patient.

One factor that leads to errors in administering medications of nurses in hospitals is the

nurse having too many tasks to handle in a day. A typical nurse often attends to several patients. In

some cases, the nurse attends to all patients in the entire floor level . Another point is that the nurse

does many off-patient activities such as charting, endorsing, referring and recording data taken from the

patients. Medications are also given simultaneously to the numerous patients in the ward.

Medication errors are an all too common problem in healthcare with potentially fatal

consequences. A study of 36 hospitals and skilled nursing facilities found that medication errors were

made in nearly 20% of all doses. Of those errors, 7% had the potential to result in injury. In practical

terms, that translates into more than 40 potentially harmful medication errors per day in a typical 300-

patient hospital
 In the U.S. alone, the issue of administering erroneous medication has been one of the

biggest problems faced by hospitals. There have been 426 medication-related malpractice payment

reports were made against registered nurses, 2 against nurse midwives, 31 against nurse practitioners in

the U.S. (2002 annual report, National Practitioner Databank, US DHHS).

As researchers in the field of nursing practice, who aim to know the apprehension and

eye views of the Registered Nurses of University of Perpetual Help Medical Center as our respondents

regarding the relationship of the incidence of administering wrong medications and multitasking. This is

also in compliance to the requirements in Introduction to Nursing Research.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study attempts to determine the relationship between the incidence of erroneous

medications and multitasking.

The following sub-problems will facilitate the investigation:

1) What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of the following:

a. Age

b. Gender

2) Is there a significant relationship between selected profile, variable, and the perception of the

respondents on the relationship between the incidence of erroneous medications and

multitasking?

3)