The nursing practice’s primary function is to provide patient care by performing tasks such as administering medication, monitoring and recording patient conditions maintaining medical records, managing intravenous lines and communicating with doctors. The main aim in performing this functions is to improve patient outcomes. To achieve this patient safety is to be adhered to. However, patient safety is often hindered by medical errors which have devastating effects on the patients and the institutions in which they occur. These effects include devastating injuries and even death to patient and law suits on the hospitals. The United States records approximately 98,000 fatalities annually as a consequence of clinical errors (Theresa et al., 2016). As a result affected medical institutions incur extra costs in compensation, which could be used to improve health care provision. It also affects the profession that is directly involved which entails the loss of public confidence in the medical center involved and the institution of nursing.
This is why various researchers and medical institution have embarked on finding ways to intervene to reduce cases of medical errors. Error recovery has been established the main intervention method in reducing medical error in the health care sector. Patient care is the main duty of the nursing profession which includes ensuring patient safety. This is why nurses are charged with the task of recovering medical errors. This paper addresses the factors influencing the recovery of clinical errors among medical-surgical nurses based on a research paper on enhancing patient safety.
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The Phenomenon of Error Recovery
Errors are mainly caused by human, technical or administrative failures (Theresa et al., 2016). This concept can be applied in the healthcare sector to refer to medical errors. This therefore means that by understanding these medical errors measures can be taken to prevent them and thus prevent clinical fatalities, patient morbidity and law suits on medical institutions and resultantly restore faith in the institution of nursing.
According to Theresa (2016) and her fellow researchers little is known about medical error recovery and its application as well as impact in improving patient care outcomes. The paper defines the medical error recovery process as a characteristic of human system module that acts by detecting, localizing and correcting system failures. This implies three phases in the application of the medical error recovery process, which includes detecting, intercepting, and correcting.
The initial phase which is the detecting phase entails identifying the occurrence of the error. This can be done by the identification of failure in the achievement of certain standards of performance. The use of detail oriented tools such as a check list help as a guide to the required performance standards. Familiarity based on knowledge and experience in health care provision makes health care providers more capable in identifying prospective medical errors.
The second phase known as the intercepting phase entails the interception and understanding of the error. This includes understanding its cause and its nature. The nurse is tasked with the duty of gathering information and forming an explanation on the cause of the error in this phase. This is helpful in determining a course of action as well as the formulation of an intervention to alleviate such an eventuality in future practice.
Correcting is the third phase which incorporates the information gathered from the first and second phases to initiate corrective action against the medical error. It entails the revision of an already established plan or the formulation of a new plan so as to come up with an effective intervention in stifling the medical error. This phase requires the nurse to use special skills in decision making, clinical reasoning and medical care creativity to come up with the most effective intercession given the severity of medical errors to patient outcomes.
Error Recovery in Health Care Practice
Nurses as primary health care providers in hospitals spend the most time and contact with patients. This gives them a better chance at error recovery to prevent potential harm to patients. Despite their predisposition to identifying, intercepting and correcting medical errors, very little is known or recognized of nurses in this aspect of health care.
To deal with medical errors in the required capacity nurses are expected to possess various skills. This includes skills influenced by their personal characteristics such as orientation to detail, experience, expertise, and education. These influences enable nurses to possess skills such as proper decision making, and advanced clinical reasoning. High levels of practical knowledge and experience are added qualities that make it easier for nurses to act appropriately once they identify a medical error.
However, there are other factors that come into play in error recovery and the alleviation of medical errors. One factor is the personality of the nurses which entails personal characteristics that determine a person’s behavior and action patterns. Consciousness and openness are the personality traits that are relevant in this case which facilitate a nurse with high performance qualities. They enable creativity and adaptability skills. They also enable flexibility and strategies which can be applied in correcting medical errors.
The organization also plays an important role in the determining of patient safety by preventing and dealing with medical errors. The embrace of a culture of safety with focus on the patients would encourage nurses under the organization to practice the same. This would be more effective in the alleviation of clinical errors. It also makes the nurses more prepared to identify, intercept and correct medical errors.
Application of Error Recovery in Nursing
Theresa and her colleagues conducted a study whose findings were recorded on the research paper. According to their findings medical-surgical nurses made an error recovery of 3,392 in total within a period of three months in practice (Theresa et al., 2016). This indicates the importance of medical surgical nurses in the surgery field of medicine as well as nurses in the general field of medicine on error recovery.
The paper also established a strong correlation between higher nursing education levels and improved patient outcomes. These better patient outcomes can partly be attributed to error recovery. The higher levels of education compared in this paper included a university education and a diploma nursing course where the university taught nurses performed better in error recovery and acting decisively and efficiently to mitigate the risks of the medical errors. The researchers attributed this to skills acquired in the higher learning institution such as critical thinking which enable the proper assessments and surveillance to detect subtle changes in the patient’s status and consequently prevent arising health complications (Theresa et al., 2016).
Another influence on error recovery as established in Theresa’s paper is self-reporting. Nurses are faced with the challenge of making complex decision which are consequently inclined to be erroneous. Self- reporting allows nurses to examine their decisions and their outcomes which enhances the chances of error recovery. Self-reporting also enables self-reflection which provides a care structure that is holistic.
Another influence on error recovery is the culture of the organization. This makes the nurses within the staff more aware and more proactive in the identification and mitigation of medical errors (Theresa et al., 2016). Workload also affects the nurses’ ability to improve patient outcomes in terms of clinical errors. The complexity in decision making and the urgency entailed in this practice makes it harder for nurses with a higher workload to be vigilant in the identification of error thus diminishes error recovery. All in all, the organization that provides health care needs to acknowledge and takes into consideration the aspects of nursing that enable error recovery so as to improve health care provision and patient outcomes.
References
Theresa A. Gaffney, Barbara J. Hatcher, Renee Milligan, Amber Trickey. (2016) Enhancing Patient Safety: Factors Influencing Medical Error Recovery Among Medical-Surgical Nurses, American Nurses Association. Retrieved from http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-21-2016/No3-Sept-2016/Enhancing-Patient-Safety.html
