The Study of Personality, Cognitive, Organizational and Physical Variables as Predictors of Medical Errors in Ahvaz Hospitals as Training Centers for Nurses (2011)

Medical errors have an important role in the patient’s safety. Every year many people die or are maimed for ever by these errors. The present study examines personality, cognitive, organizational and physical variables as predictors in Ahvaz hospitals as training centers for nurses. Methods and Materials: This is a discretive and cross sectional study. The sample consisted of 200 nurses who were selected randomly by a multi step cluster sampling method. The subjects were divided into two groups (nurses with and without medical errors). Nurses were examined by related scales. In order to analyze the data, a discriminate analysis was achieved and SPSS 17 was used. The results confirmed this hypothesis. On the other hand, findings proved the fact that the medical errors that occur can be predicted from personality, cognitive, organizational and physical variables. Step wise analysis indicates that predicting rets of medical error were strongly dependent on cognative failures, interpersonal conflict and workload. Personality, cognitive, organizational and physical variables have an important role in medical errors which occur and controling these variables can decrease the rate of medical errors.