In a study to determine what barriers to error reporting exist for physicians and
nurses it was seen that there were four main themes involved: fear, the attitude of
administration, barriers related to the system, and the employees’ perceptions of
error. (Intepeler, Mert, & Soydemir, 2016) There is the fear of professional and
legal repercussions, the fear of embarrassment and the fear judgment from peers.
Administration may not offer an environment and culture that feels like a safe
space to report errors. There could be a lack of procedures, guidelines or systems
to be used in order to accurately report an error. The employee who made the
error may not even view their mistake as an error thus feeling no need to report it.
Leaders might eradicate a culture of shame and blame around the reporting of
medical errors by establishing a work environment and culture that does so. Rather than
having a culture that associates shame and blame with the reporting of medical errors
the culture could associates the reporting of medical errors with learning and growth.
The errors reported could be utilized as learning tools for staff to an extent so the fear
behind the reporting of medical errors decreases.
Soydemir, D., Intepeler, S. S., & Mert, H. (2016, September 30).Barriers to Medical
Error Reporting for Physicians and Nurses. Sage Journals. Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0193945916671934?
journalCode=wjna
