Barriers of Reporting Errors among Nurses in a Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Background: Reporting errors in healthcare organizations is aimed to detect patient safety and quality of care issues. Reporting errors is frequently used as a general term for patient safety event reporting systems, which depend on those involved in events to provide detailed information. This study aimed to identify barriers of reporting errors at one tertiaryhospital in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of nurses themselves. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The data were collected by a questionnaire that was distributed among 154 nurses varying between male and female staff nurses working at the tertiary hospital. A descriptive statistical analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Nurses revealed that there are several barriers to report incidents; however, lack of time and complexity of works were the main barriers for nurses to report incidents within the hospital units particularly for nurses who have 11-20 years of experience. Conclusion: Conducting this study has several advantages. Firstly, to identify the common barriers of reporting errors in clinical practice among nurses. Secondly, identifying the barriers and strategies of reporting incidents will enhance the patient safety across the organization and encourage the staff to report the errors.