Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rsap Student observations of medication error reporting practices in community pharmacy settings Patricia L. Darbishire a , Jessica C. Zhao b , Angad Sodhi c , Chelsea M. Anderson d,* a Purdue University, 575 Stadium Mall Drive, RHPH 108, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, United States b Purdue University, 22344 NE 31st Street, Sammamish, WA, 98074, United States c Purdue University, 11 Branding Iron Lane, Glen Cove, NY, 11542, United States d Purdue University, 575 Stadium Mall Drive, RHPH G35, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, United States ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Medication safety Community pharmacy Medication error reporting ABSTRACT Background: Medication safety practices and methods for reporting errors in community pharmacies are rela- tively unknown. Objective: (s): The primary objective of this study was to describe student-reported data on medication safety and error reporting practices in community pharmacies, and secondarily describe student learning from this as- signment. Methods: Second professional year pharmacy students enrolled at Purdue University College of Pharmacy in the United States observed and recorded medication safety and error reporting practices as part of an experiential assignment. Data were collected from 170 unique pharmacy settings between the years 2016–2018 and analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired t-test to assess student learning. Results: 51% of students reported documentation of 1–10 errors or near misses annually, with an additional 30% reporting 11–30. Near misses were only reported 26% of the time. Errors were most commonly reported to a pharmacy-specific reporting system (84%) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices National Medication Errors Reporting Program (84%). The most frequently reported error types included wrong directions (34%), wrong drug (14%), wrong strength (13%), and wrong patient (12%). Pharmacists were observed to be inter- rupted approximately 19 times every hour. Anonymous error reporting was typically not allowed to the phar- macy's preferred error reporting system (71%). A policy requiring that the prescriber is contacted about errors was observed at 77% of the sites. The most common consequences of committing an error were education/ training (72%) or progressive discipline (41%). Students reported a statistically significant increase in under- standing of medication safety practices and methods for reporting errors in community pharmacies. (p < 0.01). Conclusion: This data supplements existing literature on medication safety practices and error reporting in community pharmacy settings, as well as highlights knowledge gaps outside the scope of this study. 1. Introduction There is no current international consensus regarding the definition of a medication error. 1 The United States National Coordinating Council on Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) defines a medication error as “any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medi- cation is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer.” 2 Medication errors may occur in any part of the prescrip- tion dispensing process and have the potential to cause patient harm. Various factors can predispose a pharmacy to a medication error, including workspace design, number of prescriptions filled, number of pharmacists on staff, or inadequate pharmacy technician training. 3,4 Community pharmacies in the United States dispense over 4.1 bil- lion prescriptions annually. 5,6 Using a dispensing error rate of 3.2%, published in a previous observational studies, it may be estimated that over 131 million dispensing errors occur in community pharmacies each year. 7,8 Although national error reporting systems exist, it is not well understood how often and by which methods that community pharmacy personnel address and report medication errors. 9,10 The primary objectives of this study were to describe student-re- ported data regarding medication safety and error reporting practices in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2019.02.009 Received 8 August 2018; Received in revised form 19 February 2019; Accepted 19 February 2019 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: darbishi@purdue.edu (P.L. Darbishire), zhao462@purdue.edu (J.C. Zhao), asodhi@purdue.edu (A. Sodhi), canderson@purdue.edu (C.M. Anderson). Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 1551-7411/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Patricia L. Darbishire, et al., Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2019.02.009