Nurses' Medication Errors: An Interpretative Study of Experiences

The meaning that nurses assign to experiences with medication errors is examined within the framework of an interpretative research design. Nurses' concrete experiences provided the data. Discourse analysis as the nucleus of the analytic tools employed is described and exemplified in the context of this phenomenologically based study. The decisions made in such situations as addressed here have moral implications on personal, institutional, and professional levels. The willingness to be self critical and the readiness to communicate as the two attitudes fundamental to moral decision-making empower nurses to develop a perception of personal and professional integrity. Description, analysis and interpretation of nurses' discourse about medication errors reveal how experiences, when talked about, shapen and influence practice.