The association between chronotype, sleep quality and medication errors among critical care nurses

ABSTRACT

Medication administration errors could result in severe complications in critical care units. This study investigated an association between chronotype, sleep quality and medication errors among essential nurses of care in Qazvin teaching hospitals in Iran. In this multicenter, cross-sectional study, all registered nurses of critical care units of Qazvin teaching hospitals were recruited. Data were collected through anonymous questionnaires, including socio-demographic data, Morning-Evening Questionnaire (MEQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and medication errors data. Data were analyzed with SPSS v.24 by using the Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, and logistic regression analysis. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant. The mean age and work experience were 33.12 ± 6.74 and 9.11 ± 5.96, respectively. One hundred sixty-six nurses (96%) have been working in rotating shifts. Nurses with intermediate chronotypes were predominant (n = 122; 70.5%). The majority of nurses (68.2%) had poor sleep quality (n = 118). Logistic regression analysis showed eveningness chronotype was associated with 4.743 fold increased risk of medication error (P < 0.033). No association was found between medication error and sleep quality (p < 0.95). There was no significant relationship between chronotype and sleep quality (P < 0.257). Our study showed that nurses with eveningness chronotype make more medication errors; therefore, considering the individual circadian preference before deciding on their shift timing assignment will be an important issue in reducing nurses’ medication errors and improving patient safety in critical care units.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronotype
• sleep
• medication error
• MEQ
• PSQI

Acknowledgments

The authors thank nurses of critical care units for their participation in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Credit authorship contribution statement

Azam Ghorbani: conceptualization, methodology, validation, statistical analysis, supervision, writing – original draft.

Maryam Momeni: methodology, validation, writing-original draft.

Leili yekefallah: investigation, Data curation.

Akram Shahrokhi: conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing-original draft.

Data availability statement

The data that support the results of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research received financial support from Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences.