February 05, 2025 
On Jan. 27, the Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER) hosted the webinar “The Role of Angolan Nursing in the Safety of Patients: prevention of medication errors” in connection to the Clinical simulation practice-based Learning in Nursing (CLINICALSIM) Erasmus+ project. The event was led by Eduardo Elambo Caiangula, current president of the Order of Nurses of Angola (ORDENFA) and general director adjunct of the Institute of Health Specialization of the Angolan Ministry of Health.
The main focus of the event was to discuss nurses’ roles in medication errors and their prevention, as medication administration is a daily responsibility within a nursing team. This topic can be largely related to CLINICALSIM, a project with the objective of better capacitating and improving the practical training of nurses in Angola.
“In the context of Angola, nursing makes up 60% of the workforce distributed in more than 3,000 health units nationwide. Therefore, they are the profession that we define as the backbone of the health sector,” said Caiangula during the introduction of the webinar.
Caiangula went on to say that errors are expected to happen during the work, yet it is the system’s job to create security measures to avoid them. Furthermore, the reality of the Angolan healthcare system must also consider the lack of resources sometimes present, such as the scarcity of pharmacists. Accordingly, Caiangula introduced an approach oriented to establish controls in order to reduce or prevent medication errors, thus employing the normalization, simplification and utilization of technology.
Additionally, the Angolan reality is that those who distribute medications in health units are usually nurses, as most of them don’t have a pharmaceutical figure to rely on. Some health units don’t follow the distribution system of only-dose medicines, which in turn adds to the occurrence of medication errors. The distribution system of only-dose medicines has been identified with the lowest rates of medication errors, as it can determine the points of vulnerability, said Caiangula.
“Sometimes we receive new professionals that are being distributed (throughout health units), yet sometimes they haven’t been properly trained in the administration of a medication,” said Caiangula while describing how there can be protocol deviations such as lack of knowledge, distractions, work overload or lack of staff, tiredness, interruptions, and inadequate training.
In the conclusion of the presentation, Caiangula brought up how the lack of proper training of nurses and the absence of a unifying protocol for health units are also factors that lead to medication errors. Moreover, Caiangula finished by noting how the prevention of medication error can stop unnecessary deaths and pain, unwanted waiting times, waste and the impotency of both healthcare professionals and patients.
The end of the webinar counted with various participants’ commentary and questions, including if a clinical simulation, such as the one proposed in the project CLINICALSIM, could diminish medication errors. He explained that by empowering students and professionals with the simulation, to acquire abilities and competencies, medication errors will diminish. Furthermore, Caiangula pointed out that in the Angolan context, there are institutions with no laboratory, which in turn means that some students graduate with only 20% of field training. Thus, simulation projects such as this would reduce these medication errors.
Lastly, ORDENFA’s president explained that there are plans to specialize more than nine thousand nursing professionals until 2028 in a different and better program focused on minimizing errors in care. “If we improve our colleagues’ abilities, we can have better (medical) assistance,” said Caiangula about offering nursing professionals better emphasis programs around the world such as in Brazil and Portugal.
