This article explores the commonly held belief that nurses are to blame for the high rate of medication administration errors in health care. The article argues for a need to move away from a culture of blame and to consider changes to medicine and the increasing complexity of administration as potential reasons for error. Medicine administration should be viewed within the wider context of health care rather than as an isolated process in order to develop effective solutions to reduce medicine-related errors.
Nursing Standard. 27, 44, 35-40. doi: 10.7748/ns2013.07.27.44.35.e7468
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to double blind peer review
Received: 20 December 2012
Accepted: 16 April 2013
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