Contributing factors to nursing error in emergency department: A qualitative study

Error always occurs in the health system and it can lead to irreparable consequences. Therefore, error prevention must be taken into account by the health systems. Detection of factors contributing to error is a key factor for the prevention of error. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore factors contributing to nursing error in emergency department.
Methods & Materials: This study was conducted using a qualitative approach. 17 emergency nurses participated in this study. Semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. Sampling was started as the purposive sampling and continued until the saturation of data was reached. Data were analyzed using the Elo & Kyngas (2008) qualitative content analysis approach. To achieve trustworthiness, participants were selected with maximum variation in terms of age, gender, work experience, and educational background.
The analysis of data led to the emergence of 500 open codes and four categories including the predisposing factors of nurse-related error, predisposing factors of organization-related error, predisposing factors of error related to the culture of emergency department and predisposing factors of patient-related error.
Factors contributing to nursing errors in emergency department were very wide and multifactorial. Identifying the factors contributing to error is a first step to prevent errors. For reducing nursing error, nursing managers should pay special attention to the contributing factors of error identified by this study and implement interventions to reduce and mitigate these factors.