Prevention of Medical Errors in Nursing Practice

STATEMENT OF NEED

Medical errors are among the most common health-threatening mistakes that affect patient care, accounting for as many as 250,000 deaths per year in the United States (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Medical errors are considered a global problem; they affect as many as 20% of patients in primary and outpatient care and complicate a patient’s primary condition for which they needed medical attention (WHO, 2019). These errors can lead to adverse outcomes, such as increased mortality, increased duration of hospitalization, and increased medical expenses, in addition to decreased confidence in the health care system. Despite their high occurrence, medical errors remain frequently underreported in health care organizations (WHO, 2019; Aljabari & Khadim, 2021). This activity will provide an overview of the types and categories of medical errors, challenges in avoiding medical errors unique to at-risk populations, and best practices for medical error analyzing and reporting.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Oncology nurses, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and other health care professionals involved in the treatment of various tumor types

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

Differentiate the 4 categories of medication errors
Analyze challenges in avoiding medical errors unique to at-risk populations
Evaluate best practices in error analysis and reporting