Peer-to-Peer Mentoring and Medication Errors among Pharmacists in Sri Lanka: Mediating role of Workload Stress

This study assesses the impact of peer-to-peer mentoring projects (PMPs)  on medication errors in Sri Lanka's government hospitals, specifically inv estigating the mediating role of workload stress. A cross-sectional design was employed, collecting online survey data from 384 purposively selected pharmacists regarding PMP usage, workload stress, and self-reported dispensing errors. Data analysis included confirmatory factor analysis and a two-step modelling approach using SmartPLS. Findings reveal significant negative correlations between PMPs and medication errors (β = 0.42, p < 0.01) and between PMPs and workload stress (β = 0.51, p < 0.01). Additionally, workload stress was positively related to errors (β = 0.38, p < 0.01) and partially mediated the PMP-error relationship (β = 0.194, p < 0.001), suggesting that error reduction is effectively achieved by alleviating pharmacist stress. Consequently, this study offers guidance for healthcare managers and policymakers to implement PMPs, fostering supportive environments for knowledge sharing, skill development, and emotional support to empower pharmacists to cope with demanding workloads and enhance patient safety. Future research should employ longitudinal and qualitative methods to explore long-term mechanisms.