Medical Error and Under-Reporting Causes from the Viewpoints of Nursing Managers: A Qualitative Study

Razieh Sadat Mousavi-Roknabadi; Marzieh Momennasab; Gary Groot; Mehrdad Askarian; Brahmaputra Marjadi

doi:10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_500_20

Medical Error and Under-Reporting Causes from the Viewpoints of Nursing Managers: A Qualitative Study

Int J Prev Med. 2022 Jul 15:13:103. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_500_20. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Razieh Sadat Mousavi-Roknabadi^{1

2}, Marzieh Momennasab³, Gary Groot⁴, Mehrdad Askarian^{5

6

7}, Brahmaputra Marjadi⁸

Affiliations

¹ Student Research Committee, Department of Community Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
² Emergency Medicine Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
³ Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁴ Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
⁵ Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁶ Health Behavior Science Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
⁷ Visiting Professor, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
⁸ School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Patient safety as a goal can be achieved by reporting medical errors (ME); however, most errors are never reported. The aim of this study is to explore the causes of ME, and the obstacles in reporting them amongst nurses.

Methods: We conducted semi-structural interviews, with 12 nursing managers in the biggest teaching hospital in southern Iran (2015-2016). The interview guide concentrated on the causes of ME and barriers in reporting them. All face-to-face interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: In this study 4 main themes were extracted for the causes of ME: personal/social characteristics, nonprofessional practice, hospital related factors/organization contextual factors, and poor management. Also, 5 main themes (such as; personal characteristics, fear from reporting, nonprofessional practices, cultural and social factors, and error surveillance system features) were obtained with regards to barriers in reporting.

Conclusions: ME can be reduced by improving professional practice and better human resource management. Also, reporting errors can be increased by focusing on cultural and social factors.

Keywords: Health policy; medical error; patient safety.