Mis-takes: mistakes in the nurse-person process

This column supports the global mantra to develop mechanisms that address the worldwide crisis in patient safety and demonstrates, using nursing as an example, that the mechanisms currently being developed are too limited. Patient safety initiatives must be expanded to acknowledge and make ways to minimize mis-takes, that is, misconceptions of meaning that emerge when healthcare professionals dismiss, misconstrue, guess, or undervalue patients' perspectives. Commitment to the human becoming school of thought as a guide for practice is suggested as one way to address mis-takes in the nurse-person process.