Abstract
Background: A medication error is any preventable incident that may prompt improper drug usage or harm patients while the medication is in the hands of healthcare professionals (HCPs), patients, or consumers. Prescription and dispensing of medication is a complex process that may threaten confusion between HCPs and sequentially medication errors. Pharmacists can intercept medication errors before adverse events occur. The present study aimed to determine the knowledge and capabilities of pharmacy students at Al-Qassim University in Saudi Arabia to detect medication errors.
Methods: The study was conducted on 122 pharmacy students from all the academic levels at Qassim University. The students were asked to fill in three prescriptions for imaginary patients, evaluate some of the prescriptions, and identify medication errors.
Results: Among the studied students, 63.9% were men. The highest error identifications for prescriptions 1 and 2 were recorded among levels 9% and 10%, 45% and 57%, respectively. For prescription 3, students in their internship were the highest to choose the correct answer (45%).
Conclusion: Our findings imply that extended pharmacotherapy and pharmacology courses could minimize the rates of medication errors and consequently maximize patients’ safety. Continued clinical practice of students during their internship could enhance their medication dosage error identification capabilities. Overall, pharmacy students at Qassim University were generally competent in identifying medication errors.

Key words: Medication error, pharmacy student, prescription