Role of registered nurses in error prevention, discovery and correction.
BACKGROUND
Registered nurses have a vital role in discovering and correcting medical error.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the type and frequency of errors detected by American critical care nurses, and to ascertain who made the errors discovered by study participants.


METHODS
Daily logbooks were used to collect information about errors discovered by a random sample of 502 critical care nurses during a 28-day period.


RESULTS
Although the majority of errors discovered and corrected by critical care nurses involved medications (163/367), procedural errors were common (n = 115). Charting and transcription errors were less frequently discovered. The errors discovered by participants were attributed to a wide variety of staff members including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, technicians and unit secretaries.


CONCLUSIONS
Given the importance of nurses in maintaining patient safety, future studies should identify factors that enhance their effectiveness to prevent, intercept and correct healthcare errors.
Rogers
A E
AE
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, 420 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19104, USA. aerogers@nursing.upenn.edu
Dean
G E
GE
Hwang
W-T
WT
Scott
L D
LD
D000328:Adult; D015400:Clinical Nursing Research; D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration; D008297:Male; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009737:Nursing Records; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D017751:Safety Management; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce