References
Nurses' attitudes and barriers to incident reporting in Malta's acute general hospital
Abstract
Although the science of patient safety has been developed and implemented widely, there remains a large gap in the understanding of the chain of events that lead to safety incidents, as well as their cost to patients, healthcare staff and the organisation as a whole. The aim of the study was to evaluate nurses' knowledge and awareness of the local incident reporting system at Malta's acute general hospital. A quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional design was used and data were collected from nurses through an online survey. A total of 323 questionnaires were received with a response rate of 23%. Various shortages within the local setting were identified, including lack of feedback and awareness of the system. Therefore, it is suggested that incident reporting should be given a higher profile on the organisation's agenda and incorporate employed members of staff rather than volunteers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) (2019) warns that patient harm is among the leading causes of the global disease burden, comparable with diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Globally, it is estimated that every year, around 42.7 million patients endure adverse events when in hospital. These incidents are related to documentation, missed or wrong diagnosis, medication errors, drug prescription and administration errors, surgical complications and wrong decision-making (Institute of Medicine, 2009). There remains a large gap in the understanding of the particular chain of events, and the weaknesses and faults that lead to safety incidents, as well as their cost to patients, healthcare staff and the organisation as a whole. In order to develop the learning culture, the incident reporting system should be non-punitive and needs to provide timely, constructive and non-judgemental feedback to motivate staff to keep participating in the learning process (Benn et al, 2009; Woo and Avery, 2021).
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