A Study on Trends to Medical Error for Nurses

Objective: This study aims to determine the level of proneness to medical error among nurses.

Method: The descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed with the voluntary participation of 125 nurses working in a Private Hospital in Karabük in AprilJune 2013. The data were collected by using “Medical Error Trend Scale in Nursing”. In the study, percentages, averages, Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney U tests were used in statistical analysis.

Results: The proneness to medical error among nurses was low. The mean score for Medical error Trend Scale was found as 4.80±0.21 of all subscales, the highest score came from prevention of infection ( x =4.83±0.24), and communication ( x =4.72±0.31) , while the lowest scores came from the patient monitoring and the safety of medical equipment ( x 4.63±0.59). There was a significant relationship between the subscales of “drug and transfusion practices” and working clinics (p=0.017), and also there was a significant relationship between training of education and the subscales of “prevention of infection” and “patient follow-up and material device security” (p = 0.043, p = 0.031).

Conclusion: Despite the obtained low scores, making training for the reduce of medical errors can contribute to the creation of awareness for patient safety.