Evaluation of human errors, using Standardized Plant Analysis Risk Human Reliability Analysis technique, among nurses of delivery emergency ward of one of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals

Considerable attention has been paid recently to medical errors in health care system. Taking into account that nurses spend more time with patients in comparison with other staff, they are more prone to human errors. The present research was done to investigate nurse's errors in delivery emergency ward of one of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals. In the present coss-sectional study, first, task analysis was conducted for nursing proffession, using Hierarchical task analysis (HTA) technique. Following, the Human Error Probability (HEP) was determined employing SPAR-H method and dependences of performance-shaping factors (PSFs) and action and diagnosis activities were identified. Finally, after determinig the level of dependency, the Final Diagnosis HEP was calculated. Assessment of risk level was done using the risk's probability and intensity tables. According to the results, for the four groups of understudy tasks, the lowest errors were belonged to the subtask "working with serum pumping machine'' with the error level of 0.055 and the highest error probability related to the subtask '' transfusion of blood products'' with the error rate of 0.78. Moreover, special responsibilities of the wards had the highest level of undesirable risks. The analysis of identified errors in the present study shows that due to high work demand, insufficient time, and the need for accurate administrative monitoring and providing required arrangements, the main causes of errors can be attributed to high level of stress and complexity in the tasks of this ward.