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Nurses'_Experiences_of_the_Most_Common_Medical_Errors_In_The_Intensive_Care_Unit_and_the_Coronary_Care_Unit_a_Hermeneutic_Phenomenological_Study.pdf | 98.51 KB |
Background: Human errors occur in every
profession. Medical errors can result in an incident or an actual injury to a
patient who has nothing to do with the underlying disease. Intensive care is
one of the highest prevalence of medical errors and patient injury in any
particular medical field, believed to be related to the rapidly changing patient
status and complex diagnoses and treatments.
Aims: The primary aim of this
study is to investigate whether nurses' experiences of the most common medical errors
in intensive care and cardiac intensive care. The
secondary aim: to assess the nature, consequences and associations of medical
errors in ICU / CCUs to investigate the factors influencing nurses' errors and
to propose strategies to prevent errors.
Setting: Five intensive care
units (ICU) and two cardiac intensive care unit (CCU) in five public hospitals
and a cardiac care unit at a private hospital in the West Bank in Palestine.
Participants: Fifteen nurses (12
ICU nurses, three CCU nurses) who have at least worked for four years in the critical
and cardiac care units.
Design: Using a qualitative approach, a hermenutic phemenological
method. Semi-structured interviews guided by an interiew guide.
Results: Nurses'experiences of the most common medical errors in ICUand
CCU presented in nine themes: medication errors, equipment errors, the patient's
fault monitoring, resuscitation errors, nursing practice error, intravenous
solutions errors, nursing care errors, documentation and evaluation errors and
communication errors between the health team.
Conclusion: Practical nurses made significantly more medical errors than
staff nurses. Working frequent shifts of 24 hours is a strong factor for
committing medical errors. Increase the competence and the number of nurses per
patient and
reduce the number of working hours can reduce medical errors and address
patient safety in intensive and cardiac care units.