The causes of Common Errors in Nurses

Human error is regarded as the most important cause of incidents in healthcare environments. Nursing error is an important indicator of reducing the quality of healthcare. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the causes of common nursing errors in different wards of Pasteur Hospital in Bam.
In this descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study, 170 nurses from different wards of the hospital entered the study through a census method in 2016. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of two sections. To determine the validity of the tool, the content and face validity methods were used. The reliability was also determined using correlation coefficient as well as Cronbach’s alpha. Then, the data were analyzed using SPSS 21 Software and descriptive statistics.
The majority of participants were female (89.4%), in the age group of 25-30 (36.5%), with a bachelor's degree (91.8%) and work experience of less than 10 years (61.2%) and were married (82.4%). The most frequent causes of nursing errors were rooted in the management dimension; the low ratio of nurses to the patients (65.2%) and the high workload of nurses (78.2%).
Identifying the factors contributing to error is a first step to prevent errors. On the other hand, the increase in nursing errors not only increases costs, but also leads to the loss of trust of the patients and their families in the health system. Therefore, nursing managers should pay special attention to the factors causing error identified in this study and take measurements to reduce these factors.