Prevalence and determinants of medical errors among early career doctors in Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed at investigating the prevalence and determinants of medical error involvement among early career doctors (ECDs) in Nigeria. Material and methods: This study was a post-hoc analysis of a descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey of 460 ECDs in 14 hospitals spreading across Nigeria. Results: The mean (±SD) age of the surveyed respondents was 32.6 (±5.7) years and 312 were males. Seventy-six respondents (16.5%) had been involved in medical error before, of which 38.1% of them indicated that they were involved in such error about 0 to 1 year ago. Bivariate analysis showed a statistically significant relationship between the place (Nigeria versus foreign) of respondents’ undergraduate medical/dental training and their status regarding involvement in medical error only (p = 0.048). However, multivariate analysis showed no statistically significant (p-values>0.05) relationship between the relevant characteristics of the respondents and their involvement in medical errors. Conclusion: This study affirms that medical error involvement is not an uncommon event among ECDs in Nigeria. Importantly, serious efforts need to be committed towards reducing the rate of medical errors among ECDs.

Keywords

• medical error
• early career
• resident
• medical doctor
• dentist
• Nigeria