References
Barriers to nurses reporting errors and adverse events
Abstract
Aim:
this study aimed to assess nurses' views about major barriers to reporting errors and adverse events in intensive care units.
Method:
a descriptive analytical study was used to examine barriers to reporting such events. A questionnaire was completed by 251 nurses across seven hospitals in Iran to elicit information about their views on reporting errors and adverse events.
Results:
the study identified three main areas that prevented the reporting of incidents—fear of the consequences after reporting an error, procedural barriers and management barriers.
Conclusion:
the most important approach to overcoming barriers that prevent nurses reporting adverse events would be to develop an atmosphere within which all nurses can report errors and the reasons that led to their occurrence honestly and without fear.
Adverse events can result in patient disability or death, prolong the time necessary to provide care, increase healthcare costs and patient dissatisfaction (Joolaee et al, 2011; Wagner et al, 2013), and increase the stress experienced by nurses (Ghorbanpour Diz et al, 2016). Such events can be categorised as errors in procedures, knowledge and skills (Kagan and Barnoy, 2013).
An adverse event is an instance when a patient's care has been compromised and may indicate that the care delivered was suboptimal. Common instances of adverse events include medication errors, healthcare-acquired infections, postoperative complications, delayed diagnoses, fall-related injuries and pressure ulcers (Shojania and Thomas, 2013).
Work in the Netherlands, the UK and USA has investigated potentially preventable deaths attributable to adverse events, suggesting that they could be responsible for 0.9–5.2% of hospital deaths. Research undertaken over the past 15 years has estimated that every year medical errors could be responsible for 1735 deaths in Dutch hospitals (Zegers et al, 2009); 11 859 in English hospitals (Hogan et al, 2012); and around 400 000 deaths in US hospitals (James, 2013). In the USA, adverse events have been ranked as the third leading cause of death in 2016 (Makary and Daniel, 2016).
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