Nurse Manager's Approach to Working Errors: Results of a Qualitative Study

Maintaining the patient safety is a fundamental concept in healthcare systems. Working errors are the factors that threaten the patient safety, and are highly important to be controlled. The managers’ approach to error reporters is effective in preventing these errors and increasing error reporting in the case of occurrence. The current study aimed to analyze the managers’ approach to errors made at Imam Khomeini hospital, Urmia in 2011.
This qualitative research was carried out to investigate the perspective of nurse managers about dealing with working errors. 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with working managers at Urmia Teaching Hospitals. The obtained data were studied through content analysis.
Based on the findings, three main categories were obtained, including the managers’ approach to reporting working errors, managers’ reaction to working errors, and strategies to reduce the incidence of errors.
The regulations or guidelines of error reporting are useful for organizations, reduce personal measures and preferences, and encourage nurses to embark on error reporting. Thus, these regulations are required to be formulated and implemented by the managers of the healthcare system in Iran.