Medical Error Status of Nurses and Midwives Work in Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinics and Their Opinions About the Reasons

• Main Authors: Meltem UĞURLU, Gülşen VURAL
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Galenos Publishing House 2020-10-01
• Series: Bezmiâlem Science
• Subjects: medical errors; nurses; midwifery; malpractice
• Online Access: http://bezmialemscience.org/archives/archive-detail/article-preview/medical-error-status-of-nurses-and-midwives-work-i/41758
• ISSN: 2148-2373; 2148-2373

Objective:To determine the medical errors of nurses and midwives work in gynecology and obstetric services and their opinions about the reasons of medical errors.Methods:The sample of this study consisted of 365 nurses and midwives working in gynecology&obstetrics services of nine hospitals in a city of Turkey. Ethics committee and institution permissions were obtained for the study. Data were collected using a form developed by the researchers according to literature.Results:It was determined that 14.2% of the nurses and midwives did medical errors, the most common errors were medication (54.5%) and communication (18.3%) errors. Nurses and midwives stated that the insufficient number of health care workers, excessive workload, carelessness, neglect and lack of information were very important reasons of medical errors. There was a statistically significant relationship between the status of medical errors of nurses and midwives and their age, working year in profession and the number of patients they were responsible for care (p<0.05).Conclusion:It is important to reduce medical errors that cause significant problems for the health system, patients and health care personnel. For this purpose, it is considered important to include medical errors in the vocational and in-service trainings of nurses and midwives, to provide orientation of the newly graduated nurses to the clinic they work, and to ensure the corporate culture where medical errors are reported without hesitation.