The Relationship Between Patient Safety Culture in Medication Administration and Nurses’ Tendency Toward Medical Errors

Introduction: Medication administration is a critical process in healthcare, directly influencing patient safety. Nurses play a key role in this process and are expected to adopt a strong safety culture.
Methods: This descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 150 nurses working at a training and research hospital between October 15, and November, 1, 2025. Data were collected using “Nurse Demographic Information Form,” “Patient Safety Culture Scale in Medication Administration,” and “Tendency Towards Medical Errors Scale.”
Results: The mean patient safety culture score in medication administration was high (82.06±9.18), while the mean medical error propensity score indicated a low tendency toward errors (230.04±15.08). A statistically significant and positive correlation was found between patient safety culture and medical error propensity scores (r=0.502, p<0.001). Considering that higher scores on the Medical Error Propensity Scale represent a lower tendency toward medical errors, this finding indicates that a stronger patient safety culture is associated with reduced error propensity. Nurses with longer professional experience demonstrated significantly higher patient safety culture scores, while nurses with postgraduate education demonstrated higher patient safety culture scores and lower self-reported medical error tendencies.
Discussion and Conclusion: Nurses with higher perceptions of patient safety culture tend to be associated with lower tendencies toward medical errors. Organizational strategies that support safety culture, continuous professional education, and balanced workload management may be associated with medical error tendencies and patient care quality.

Keywords: Medical errors; Nursing; Patient safety; Safety management