Understanding nurses’ experiences with near-miss error reporting omissions in large hospitals

Abstract

Aim: This qualitative study aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of nurses’ experiences with near-miss errors and report omissions known to be direct or indirect causes of medical accidents in hospitals and cited as precursors of serious medical accidents. Design: This study collected experiences of research participants through an interview as a qualitative research method and confirmed the meaning through an inductive approach. Methods: We selected nine nurses with various levels of experience from 27 May to 10 June 2019 for analysis. We adopted phenomenological research methods and procedures proposed by Colaizzi (Existential-phenomenological alternative for psychology, 1978) and established the feasibility and integrity of our results based on narrative studies proposed by Lincoln and Guba (Naturalistic inquiry, 1985). Results: This study demonstrated that near-miss errors and report omissions experienced by professional nurses could be merged into the following themes: lack of cognitive susceptibility to near-miss errors; confusion about the reporting system for near-miss errors; lack of knowledge about near-miss errors; disappointment with results of reporting near-miss errors; and fear of reporting near-miss errors. These results strongly suggest the need to improve recognition efforts based on a socio-educational viewpoint involving the so-called openness about failures.