# Steps to Adapt the Medication Administration Error Survey in Highly Specialised Units—Polish Perspectives

## TL;DR

This study adapts and validates a medication error survey tool for use in Polish highly specialized healthcare units.

## Contribution

The paper presents a validated Polish version of the Medication Administration Error Scale for specialized units.

## Key findings

- The Polish version of the survey showed high internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha values above 0.93.
- Factor loadings of the items in the 5-factor model ranged from 0.602 to 0.783, indicating strong reliability.
- The tool is reliable for assessing medication administration errors in highly specialized medical settings.

## Abstract

Background and Objectives: Medication errors are a critical issue in healthcare systems worldwide, contributing to significant patient harm, with studies indicating that medication-related incidents are among the most common causes of adverse events in medical practice. There are between 80 and 200 steps in providing a single patient with a single dose of drugs, with five stages, including prescription, preparation, dispensation, administration and monitoring. This study aims to describe and validate the MAEs (Medication Administration Error Scale) tool, which investigates the most common causes of medication errors in medication administration. Materials and Methods: Independent translators translated the original version of the scale using language verification. The agreed-upon version of the translation was then assessed by a team of nurses, specialists in anaesthetic and intensive care nursing, in terms of understanding the translated content. After introducing changes resulting from linguistic and organisational differences, a survey questionnaire was prepared and used in the pilot study. Eighty-six respondents participated in the pilot study via the Office 365 platform and the Forms programme. The research was led by nurses who work in highly specialised units. The reliability of the translated version of the questionnaire was examined by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Results: The tool’s internal consistency across ranges was within acceptable limits. For part A (questions 1–29), it was 0.93; for part B (questions 30–45), it was 0.94. In part C, regarding the percentages of the type of error occurring in a given medical facility, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.97. When the factor loadings of the items were evaluated, they were determined to be in the range of 0.602–0.783. In this context, the factor loading levels of the items in the 5-factor model were high and sufficient. Conclusions: The statistical analyses suggest that the Polish version of the Medication Administration Error Survey demonstrates satisfactory reliability and is a promising tool for assessing the cause of medication administration errors.