FACTORS INFLUENCING THE OCCURENCE OF MEDICAL ERROR AMONG RESIDENT DOCTORS AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE OCCURRENCE OF MEDICAL ERROR AMONG RESIDENT DOCTORS AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HOSPITAL, IBADAN.

Introduction: Medical errors represent a serious public health problem and pose a threat to patient safety. Some factors influence the daily practice on medicine service to patients. In Nigeria, medical error is an imperative cause of patient mortality and morbidity and it has to be addresses by creating a culture of safety in medical practice.

Aim: To determine the factor that influences the occurrence of medical error among resident doctors at the university college hospital, Ibadan.

Methods: Using a descriptive cross-sectional approach, a two- stage sampling techniques was used to obtain a sample of 302 resident doctors selected from 515 at the University College Hospital (UCH). A pretested self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and factors responsible for the occurrence of medical error. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square at the 0.05 level of significance.

Result: The mean age of the respondents was 34.0±2.7 years. Most of the respondents were males 228(75.5%) and 74 (24.5%) were females. About 33.4% of the respondents were pre-part 1, a majority of the resident doctors (64.9%) were post- part 1 of their Fellowship examinations and 1.7% were post- part 2. Most of the respondents (82.1%) had between 1 and 3 years of experience as resident doctors. A majority (62.3%) of respondents reported that high work load, ill-equipped facility, work environment, patient factor and institutional factors influence their daily medical practice.

Conclusion: There is a need for continuing medical education to improve medical knowledge and skills to with regards to medical error in the institution, deployment of more medical staff to reduce excessive work load on existing workers, procurement of more well-equipped facility that will promote quality delivery of health care to patients and establishment of proactive error avoidance strategies by the institution towards reducing medical error. This will thus improve the quality of healthcare delivery and reinforce possible standards of care that are evidence-based against medical error.

Key words: Medical practice, Patient safety, Continuing medical education

TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

RESULT

DISCUSSIONS

RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES