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The gap between nurses and residents in a community hospital's error-reporting system
Dorothea Wild1, Elizabeth H Bradley
1Department of Internal and Preventive Medicine, Griffin Hospital, Derby, Connecticut, USA. Dorothea.Wild@yale.edu
Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety
|February 5, 2005
Summary
Residents report lower awareness and use of hospital error reporting systems compared to nurses. This highlights a need for targeted interventions to improve resident participation in medical error reporting.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare quality improvement
- Patient safety research
- Medical education and training
Background:
- Limited understanding of current resident and nurse attitudes towards medical error reporting.
- Need for tailored interventions to enhance reporting practices.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess and compare knowledge, attitudes, and practices of residents and nurses regarding hospital error reporting.
- To identify factors influencing error reporting behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Survey of 24 residents and 60 nursing staff at a community hospital (2001-2002).
- Self-administered questionnaires assessing system knowledge, usage, perceptions, and influencing conditions.
Main Results:
- Significantly lower resident awareness (54%) and system usage (13%) compared to nurses (97% and 72%, respectively).
- Residents reported less comfort discussing errors with supervisors and perceived a less supportive environment for reporting compared to nurses.
Conclusions:
- Current error reporting systems may not accurately reflect the true incidence of medical errors.
- Hospitals require targeted strategies to improve resident engagement in error reporting systems.