CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Backgroung of the Study

The safety of the patients is key components of the quality of care and critical concern in any health care system. Errors, on the order hand are an integral part of human and professional life. Though medical and nursing errors are inevitable and common, they are serious and a major threats to the patient safety. The incidence of errors is high in health system worldwide and they affects about one out of every ten hospitalized patients.

The term “errors” entails “deviations from correctness” and “taking the wrong part”. Lewis et al (2013) describes nurse’s involvement in errors as an ambiguous problem requiring explanations. Medical errors occur when care providers make the wrong decisions or used the wrong procedures. However, individuals studied by Sanagoo etal (2012) define nursing errors and mistakes as  an  act endangering the patient’s life or causing any kind of harm to the patient. This is drastically different from the legal definition.

Errors affect patients safety and safety is fundamental aspects of nursing care (margues and vinagre , 2018). Errors or mistakes are usually classified as preventable or unpreventable events (Brennan et al, 2004). In the UK, the tem near miss is used to describe a patient having been exposed to a hazardous situation when no injury or harm is sustained due to chance or early detection (WHO

2005).reventable events should not occur and often referred to as “never events”. Elliot et al (2018) defined  never  events   as   serious  incidents  that  are  preventable  if  national guidance   and recommendations are available and applied by healthcare workers. NHS improvements published a  list of never events along with  a never events policy and framework (NHS improvement, 2018a) to  help  health  care providers  deliver  safe high quality  compassionate  care  that  is  financially sustainable. If preventable events have taken place, a breach has occurred during the care delivery process and the guidance /recommendations have not been implemented.

Nursing errors  are one of the common causes of iatrogenic adverse outcomes in the health care industry. A nursing error is defined as failure to achieve planned actions or using wrong plans to attain an objective (errors that results   due to planning). A medical error is  a preventable adverse effect of medical care, whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient Hofer TP et al, (2000).

Among the problems that  commonly occur during providing   healthcare  are  adverse drug events and improper transfusions, under and over treatment, surgical injuries and wrong site of injections, suicides,  restraint  related  injuries      or  death,  falls,  burns, pressure   ulcers,   and   mistaken   patient   identities.   High   error   rates   with   serious consequences are likely to occur in ICU, operating rooms, and emergency departments. Nursing errors are also associated with age, new procedures, urgency,

and severity of the medical condition being treated.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

Globally, there has been growing concern regarding medically oriented errors arising in clinical practice; however , little is known about nursing errors .Nursing errors are usually associated with medication errors   with order types of errors in nursing practice been poorly defined.  This leaves gap in the literature for further exploration to established if a discrete category of errors associated solely with nurses and nursing can be distinguished.This is evidenced to suggest that nurses who are involved in clinical oriented errors are”namd,blamed,and shamed”dispite international calls for non-punitive approaches to error management being advocated in healthcare service.

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 General Research Questions

What are the errors and mistakes often committed by nurses during their nursing practice?

1.3.2 Specific Research Questions

 What are the types of the mistakes and errors often committed?

 What are the challenges often faced by nurses in trying to avoid the errors  and mistakes they commit during their practice?.

1.4 Research Objectives

1.4.1 Genral research objectives

   To identify errors that are sometimes committed

1.4.2 Specific Research Objectives

              To identify perceived errors that are sometimes committe

   To identify reasons and mistakes  committed

   To identify ways of curbing errors and mistakes committed