Organisational Contributions Toward Safe Medication Administration

The Organizational Safety Space Model (OSSM) was developed as a tool to investigate the factors which influence the safety of industrial operations. It is utilized in this study to investigate the safety of medication administration in adult critical care settings. Qualitative Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 adult critical care nurses. The participants’ views on the safety of medication administration were analyzed using OSSM. The safety of medication administration is subject to complex influences of many organizational and Socio-cultural factors. Organizational complexity created tension between organizational ethical and structural priorities on one side and the requirements of safe management of medication in adult critical care a setting on the other inevitably leading to tradeoffs among these organizational priorities. Some organizational factors are difficult to classify according to the OSSM and the model is not fully operational in unlocking the complex interplay among many organizational and socio-cultural factors which underline the safety of medication administration in adult critical care settings.