Abstract Background: Human error occurs in every occupation. Medical errors may result in a near miss or an actual injury to a patient that has nothing to do with the underlying medical condition. Intensive care has one of the highest incidences of medical error and patient injury in any specialty medical area; thought to be related to the rapidly changing patient status and complex diagnoses and treatments. Aims: The primary aim of the study is to investigate nurses’ experience of the most common medical errors in critical care units and coronary care units. The secondary aims: are to assess the nature, consequences, and associations of medical errors in ICUs/CCUs, to examine the factors influencing nurses’ errors, and to propose strategies to prevent errors. Setting: five intensive care units (ICU) and two coronary care units (CCU) in five governmental hospitals and one coronary care unit in a private hospital on the west bank of Palestine. Sample: fifteen registered nurses (12 ICU nurses, 3 CCU nurses) who have at least four years of experience in the critical or coronary care units. Research methodological design: Using qualitative methodology, hermeneutic phenomenological approach semi-structured interviews were guided by a script that included a series of both open-ended and Pop questions. Results: the nurses ‘experiences of the most common medical errors in ICU and CCU are presented in nine themes: Medication errors, technical equipment errors, patient monitoring errors, resuscitation errors, nursing procedure errors, intravenous solutions errors, patient care errors, documentation and assessment errors, and communication errors among health teams. Conclusion: Practical nurses made substantially more medical errors. Working frequent shifts of 24 hours is a strong factor to commit medical errors. Increasing the competency and number of nurses per patient and reducing the number of working hours can reduce medical errors and address patient safety concerns in intensive and coronary care units. Keywords: Nurses’ experience; intensive care unit; coronary care unit; medical error; patient safety; hermeneutics; phenomenology

Title

Aidah Alkaissi

Publisher

jcmimagescasereports.org

Publisher Country

Palestine

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

1.2

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

2

Year

2022

Pages

1223.