Background: Human error occurs in every occupation. Medical
errors may result in a near miss or an actual injury to a patient that has
nothing to do with the underlying medical condition. Intensive care has one of
the highest incidences of medical error and patient injury in any specialty
medical area; thought to be related to the rapidly changing patient status and
complex diagnoses and treatments.
Aims: The primary aim of the study is to investigate nurses’ experience of the
most common medical errors in critical care units and coronary care units.
The secondary aims: to assess the nature, consequences and associations of
medical errors in ICUs/CCUs, to examine the factors influencing nurses' error,
and to propose strategies to prevent errors.
Setting: five intensive care units(ICU) and two coronary care units(CCU) in
five governmental hospitals and one coronary care unit in a private hospital in
the west bank of Palestine.
Sample: fifteen registered nurses (12 ICU nurses, 3 CCU nurses ) 8 men and 7
women who have at least 2 years experience in the critical or coronary care
units.
Research methodological design: Using qualitative methodology, hermenutic
phemenological approachs, semi-structured interviews were guided by a script
which included a series of both open-ended and Pop questions. Data analysis was
performed by using the thematic structural analysis.
Results: the nurses'experiences of the most common medical errors in ICUand CCU
are presented in nine themes: Medication errors, technical equipments errors,
patient’s monitoring errors, resuscitation errors, nursing procedures errors,
intravenous solutions errors, patient care errors, documentation and assessment
errors, and communication errors among health teams.
Conclusion: Practical nurses made substantially more medical errors. To work frequent
shifts of 24 hours is a strong factor to commit medical errors. Increase the
competency and number of nurses per patients, reduce the number of working
hours and availability of standard and guidelines can reduce medical errors and
address patient safety concerns in intensive and coronary care units.
Key words: nurses' experience, intensive care unit, coronary care unit, medical
error, patient safety, hermeneutic, phenomenology.