Frequency, Causes and Reporting Barriers of Nursing Errors in the Operating Room Students

Abstract

Introduction: Operating room with respect to multiple invasive procedures can be a context for the incidence of nursing errors. Also, students are in the process of learning that can lead to errors by them. This study aimed to determine the rate , causes and reporting barriers of nursing errors in the operating room students of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Methods: In this descriptive and cross-sectional study 120 students of operating room that have been choosen by census method participated. To collect data a three-part questionnaire including (demographic characteristics, frequency of error, the causes of errors and error reporting barriers) was used. Data analysis using descriptive statistics by SPSS was performed. Results: Most nursing errors were related to non-compliance with sterile technique (78.3 percent), reactions to blood or blood products (75.5 percent) and retention of foreign bodies in the surgical incision (73.3 percent), respectively. The most important causes of nursing errors from the perspective of students were the lack of sufficient information (82.5 percent), distraction (79.2 percent) and forced to perform multi-tasks simultaneously (78.3 percent). The most important causes for refusing to report the error were the fear of disclosure of mistakes and following by justice issues (57.5 percent) and fear of the impact of errors in the evaluation and educational consequences (57.5 percent), respectively. Conclusions: Prevention is the best way of reducing errors, so by recognizing the type and causes of nursing errors in the view of operating room students, clinical instructors should perform necessary preventive actions especially in the clinical training period. Promoting culture of reporting errors, especially in college by supporting them and reduce the impact on student evaluation is recommended.