WHY DOCTORS AND PHARMACISTS MAKE ERRORS DURING INTERNSHIP?
Abstract
Background: After completion of formal education, physicians and pharmacists have to be trained to become independent practitioners. During the internship they are mentored by experienced practitioners. The aim: To discover factors associated with prescribing and dispensing errors during internship.
Materials and methods: This study was of qualitative design, using grounded theory method. Six physicians and six pharmacists were interviewed during their internship. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, filtered and divided to semantic units which were than grouped into categories and themes.
Results: The most important factors associated with prescribing or dispensing errors made by physicians and pharmacists during their internship were: insufficient knowledge, large workload, insufficient staffing, illegible handwriting, unwillingness of mentors in hospitals to teach interns and exhaustion during working hours.
Conclusions: This study revealed the most important factors associated with prescribing and dispensing errors during internship. Adequate corrective measures could eliminate majority of listed factors and significantly decrease frequency of errors, increasing safety of the patients in the same time.References
Правилник о приправничком стажу и стручном испиту здравствених радника и здравствених сарадника. Службени гласник Републике Србије бр. 50/2006, 112/2009 и 50/2010.
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