Promoting Just Culture: Implementing a Medication Error Reporting Process in Nursing Education.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Quality Improvement
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Medication errors (MEs) pose risks in healthcare education.
• A just culture is essential for reporting and learning from MEs.
• Current reporting processes may lack consistency and support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate a standardized ME reporting process.
• To foster a just culture within a school of nursing.
• To enhance faculty confidence in managing student medication errors.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement project was undertaken.
• Clinical faculty received training on a new ME reporting system.
• A debriefing tool, behavior classification algorithm, and second victim support were integrated.
• Faculty confidence was assessed via pre- and post-training surveys.

Main Results:

• Faculty confidence in addressing MEs with students significantly increased post-training.
• Common MEs involved incorrect dose, patient, time, medication, and route (69%).
• Data collection via the incident reporting system is ongoing.

Conclusions:

• A standardized ME reporting process enhances faculty confidence.
• This approach promotes fairness and equity for students.
• A structured, consistent system is valuable for managing MEs effectively.