Processes developed by nurse managers regarding the error

Abstract

Background: In the current context of patient safety pro-motion, nurse managers play a key role in health care. Objectives: To identify nurse managers’ perceptions and their management strategies regarding the error, and to analyze the corrective and preventive measures implement-ed by them. Methodolog y: Qualitative study, based on James Reason’s theory, with semi-structured interviews to a convenience sample of 14 nurse managers of a hospital center in the central region of Portugal. Content analysis was performed using the ATLAS.ti software. Results: Eight categories were identified and grouped into two thematic areas. The following categories were identi-fied: Analysis with the nurse, and Report to the physician in the Person approach; and Analysis with the team, Ad-verse event reporting, Working Group, Awareness, Analysis of complaints, and Positive reinforcement in the System approach. Conclusion: Systemic categories outnumbered individual categories. Participants emphasized the need to improve adherence to reporting. No strategies for error prevention were identified.