[Errors in Medicine: perceptions of nursing students in Rome]

The error in medicine has long been discussed in scientific debates. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the degree knowledge, attitude and behavior of students in Nursing for the failure in the health sector.

It was administered to 231 students of Nursing of the Sapienza University of Rome (171 females and 60 males), aged between 21 and 45 years, a structured questionnaire in three questions that explore the experiences and opinions about the errors found in medical practice, the causes underlying them and the mistakes that should never be committed. Data were collected, stratified by sex, age, marital status, and analyzed using the χ2 test. Significance was set at p≤0.05.

The 5 errors found more frequently in clinical practice by the students were the following: Errors that favors the onset of hospital infections (58.9%); Non adherence to protocols (50.2%); Patient care (45.9%); Errors due to the administration of therapies and drugs (45.9%); Errors relating to the execution of withdrawals (35.9%). The five cases considered most frequently responsible for such errors were: the rush (70.1%), followed by neglect / superficial (55%); disorganization (51.5%); not hygienically / infertility (50.6%) and inattention (42.9%). With regard to the errors that you should never commit, students have shown more frequently: the errors of administration of therapies / medications (69.3%); errors of prescription therapies / medications (58.9%); errors related to surgery (52.8%); the exchange of patient or misidentification of the patient (50.6%); errors that favor the occurrence of hospital infections (48.1%).

The results of this study shows the importance of a culture of error in medicine, also as part of undergraduate education, in order to train and educate future health professionals to this issue in order to promoting patient safety and quality of health.