Flaws and all: How mindfulness reduces error hiding by enhancing authentic functioning.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Safety
• Organizational Psychology
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Error hiding poses significant risks to patient safety by preventing the identification and correction of mistakes.
• Self-determination theory provides a framework for understanding motivation and its impact on behavior in the workplace.
• Mindfulness interventions are increasingly explored for their potential to improve well-being and performance in professional settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between mindfulness, authentic functioning, and error hiding in a hospital setting.
• To examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness intervention in reducing error hiding.
• To explore the qualitative experiences of participants undergoing mindfulness training.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial comparing mindfulness training, an active control, and a waitlist control group.
• Latent growth modeling to analyze cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between variables.
• Qualitative phenomenological analysis to understand participants' experiences of change.

Main Results:

• Mindfulness intervention significantly reduced error hiding, mediated by enhanced authentic functioning.
• Authentic functioning was characterized by a receptive and nondefensive engagement with self-relevant information.
• Qualitative data supported the mechanisms through which mindfulness influences self-perception and openness.

Conclusions:

• Mindfulness training is an effective strategy to decrease error hiding in healthcare professionals.
• Promoting authentic functioning is key to mitigating error hiding and improving occupational safety.
• Findings contribute to understanding mindfulness applications in organizational safety and healthcare contexts.