Complications: acknowledging, managing, and coping with human error.

Sevann Helo; Carol-Anne E. Moulton

Review

Complications: acknowledging, managing, and coping with human error.

November 1, 2017

Helo S, Moulton C-AE. Transl Androl Urol. 2017;6(4):773-782.

View more articles from the same authors.

Human factors can contribute to failure in any activity. This review explores reasons clinicians remain reluctant to disclose error, such as shame, insufficient disclosure skills, and inadequate coping mechanisms. The authors suggest that systems and relationships can be developed to help address these barriers and learn from outcomes associated with mistakes.

PubMed citation

Free full text

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

"Some version, most of the time": the surgical safety checklist, patient safety, and the everyday experience of practice variation.

January 19, 2022

Slowing down to stay out of trouble in the operating room: remaining attentive in automaticity.

December 8, 2010

"First, do no harm": balancing competing priorities in surgical practice.

October 10, 2012

Beyond the surgical safety checklist: using intraoperative handoff to facilitate team situation awareness in the OR.

October 25, 2023

Fake it 'til you make it: pressures to measure up in surgical training.

June 13, 2018

Waking up the next morning: surgeons' emotional reactions to adverse events.

December 12, 2012

Understanding the multidimensional effects of resident duty hours restrictions: a thematic analysis of published viewpoints in surgery.

August 9, 2017

The ritualisation of the surgical safety checklist and its decoupling from patient safety goals.

March 13, 2024

How communication among members of the health care team affects maternal morbidity and mortality.

January 18, 2017

Health information technologies: from hazardous to the dark side.

August 3, 2016

Establishing an international baseline for medication safety in oncology: findings from the 2012 ISMP International Medication Safety Self Assessment for Oncology.

December 3, 2014

Oncology medication safety: a 3D status report 2008.

November 5, 2008

Systems thinking and incivility in nursing practice: an integrative review.

February 14, 2018

Development of "SWARM" as a model for high reliability, rapid problem solving, and institutional learning.

November 4, 2015

Post-operative mortality, missed care and nurse staffing in nine countries: a cross-sectional study.

September 13, 2017

Nurses' shift length and overtime working in 12 European countries: the association with perceived quality of care and patient safety.

October 1, 2014

Quantifying nursing workflow in medication administration.

January 9, 2008

Electronic medical record alert associated with reduced opioid and benzodiazepine coprescribing in high-risk Veteran patients.

January 17, 2018

Primary care closed claims experience of Massachusetts malpractice insurers.

October 16, 2013

Missed nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative observational study.

July 21, 2021

Missed nursing care in the critical care unit, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative cross-sectional study.

June 22, 2022

Swapping horses midstream: factors related to physicians' changing their minds about a diagnosis.

July 28, 2010

Prevalence and nature of adverse medical device events in hospitalized children.

June 26, 2013

Prevalence and nature of errors and near errors reported by hospital staff nurses.

March 6, 2005

Factors contributing to all-cause 30-day readmissions: a structured case series across 18 hospitals.

October 10, 2012

Seeking answers, hearing silence.

August 22, 2018

Drug name confusion: preventing medication errors.

July 27, 2005

Types and patterns of safety concerns in home care: client and family caregiver perspectives.

March 9, 2016

‘I am not the doctor for you’: physicians’ attitudes about caring for people with disabilities.

October 26, 2022

Enhancing healthcare process design with human factors engineering and reliability science, part 1: setting the context.

January 16, 2008

Enhancing healthcare process design with human factors engineering and reliability science, part 2: applying the knowledge to clinical documentation systems.

March 12, 2008

Implementing a fatigue countermeasures program for nurses: a focus group analysis.

June 2, 2010

Pharmacy-led medication reconciliation programmes at hospital transitions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

March 23, 2016

Effective discharge communication in the emergency department.

February 1, 2012

Nurses' satisfaction with medication administration point-of-care technology.

September 5, 2007

Nurse staffing and inpatient mortality in the English National Health Service: a retrospective longitudinal study.

May 3, 2023

Patients' willingness and ability to participate actively in the reduction of clinical errors: a systematic literature review.

May 16, 2012

Elective surgical patients' narratives of hospitalization: the co-construction of safety.

March 5, 2014

Testing the association between Patient Safety Indicators and hospital structural characteristics in VA and nonfederal hospitals.

November 18, 2009

Effects of critical care nurses' work hours on vigilance and patients' safety.

January 25, 2006

Building and sustaining a systemwide culture of safety.

December 14, 2005

Impact of barcode medication administration technology on how nurses spend their time providing patient care.

January 7, 2009

'Care left undone' during nursing shifts: associations with workload and perceived quality of care.

August 14, 2013

Adaptation and implementation of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist around the world.

November 3, 2021

A review of adverse event reports from emergency departments in the Veterans Health Administration.

March 18, 2020

Leading your organization to high reliability.

April 22, 2009

A plan for achieving significant improvement in patient safety.

April 4, 2007

A mediation skills model to manage disclosure of errors and adverse events to patients.

September 21, 2005

Tracking rates of patient safety indicators over time: lessons from the Veterans Administration.

September 6, 2006

The hidden costs of reconciling surgical sponge counts.

November 11, 2015

Better medical office safety culture is not associated with better scores on quality measures.

January 11, 2012

Performing an inadvertent procedure.

January 30, 2019

Medication safety and the administration of intravenous vincristine: international survey of oncology pharmacists.

February 26, 2014

Disclosing medical errors: prioritising the needs of patients and families.

July 5, 2023

Identifying barriers and enablers for a robust independent second check of medication in adult intensive care.

November 8, 2023

Workplace empowerment and magnet hospital characteristics as predictors of patient safety climate.

June 25, 2008

The Sorry Works! Coalition: making the case for full disclosure.

June 7, 2006

Implementing root cause analysis in an area health service: views of the participants.

November 16, 2005

Barriers and facilitators to hospital pharmacists' engagement in medication safety activities: a qualitative study using the theoretical domains framework.

April 18, 2018

A concept analysis of systems thinking.

January 18, 2017

Nursing implications of an early warning system implemented to reduce adverse events: a qualitative study.

May 11, 2022

Adverse drug event rates in six community hospitals and the potential impact of computerized physician order entry for prevention.

November 25, 2009

High performance teamwork training and systems redesign in outpatient oncology.

April 3, 2013

The Safe Tables Collaborative: a statewide experience.

May 4, 2011

Interdisciplinary collaboration to maintain a culture of safety in a labor and delivery setting.

May 15, 2013

A medication error prevention survey: five years of results.

January 7, 2009

Medication errors in mental healthcare: a systematic review.

December 20, 2006

Interruptions in emergency department work: an observational and interview study.

May 15, 2013

The working hours of hospital staff nurses and patient safety.

January 9, 2005

Estimating the economic cost of nurse sensitive adverse events amongst patients in medical and surgical settings.

June 16, 2021

A comprehensive perinatal patient safety program to reduce preventable adverse outcomes and costs of liability claims.

October 28, 2009

Student-observed surgical safety practices across an urban regional health authority.

July 6, 2011

Patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care: cross sectional surveys of nurses and patients in 12 countries in Europe and the United States.

April 4, 2012

Longitudinal analyses of nurse staffing and patient outcomes: more about failure to rescue.

June 7, 2006

Delivery of optimized inpatient anticoagulation therapy: consensus statement from the Anticoagulation Forum.

June 5, 2013

Sleep and errors in a group of Australian hospital nurses at work and during the commute.

November 19, 2008

Integrating incident data from five reporting systems to assess patient safety: making sense of the elephant.

August 25, 2010

The impact of patient and public involvement on UK NHS health care: a systematic review.

January 30, 2005

The Child Health PSO at 10 years: an emerging learning network.

August 18, 2021

Association of work environment with missed and rushed care: tasks among care aides in nursing homes.

March 11, 2020

Impacts of operational failures on primary care physicians' work: a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature.

May 13, 2020

Junior doctors' shifts and sleep deprivation.

June 29, 2005

A literature review of the individual and systems factors that contribute to medication errors in nursing practice.

September 16, 2009

Validating domains of patient contextual factors essential to preventing contextual errors: a qualitative study conducted at Chicago area Veterans Health Administration sites.

April 19, 2017

Medication errors: the school nurse as second victim.

May 2, 2018

Fault/no fault: bearing the brunt of medical mishaps.

August 27, 2008

Using patient safety indicators to estimate the impact of potential adverse events on outcomes.

January 30, 2008

Medication room madness: calming the chaos.

November 4, 2009

Abandon the term "second victim."

April 10, 2019

How do stakeholders experience the adoption of electronic prescribing systems in hospitals? A systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies.

September 18, 2019

A systematic review of nursing practice workarounds.

October 19, 2022

Who killed patient safety?

July 20, 2022

Patient Safety Innovations

There is an app for that: mobile technology improves complication reporting and resident perception of their role in patient safety

September 29, 2021

Thematic analysis of nurses' experiences with The Joint Commission's medication management titration standards.

September 15, 2021

A trigger tool to identify adverse events in the intensive care unit.

October 4, 2006

Predictors of adverse events in patients after discharge from the intensive care unit.

May 28, 2008

Incidence and prevention of iatrogenic urethral injuries.

May 7, 2008

Implementing a distraction-free practice with the Red Zone Medication Safety initiative.

June 8, 2016

The work of nurses to provide good and safe services to children receiving hospital-at-home: a qualitative interview study from the perspectives of hospital nurses and physicians.

October 20, 2021

Health literacy and patient safety events.

July 13, 2016

Related Resources

Annual Perspective

Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality

April 26, 2023

Addressing patient safety hazards using critical incident reporting in hospitals: a systematic review.

January 18, 2023

Toward zero harm: Mackenzie Health's journey toward becoming a high reliability organization and eliminating avoidable harm.

November 16, 2022

Organizational factors that promote error reporting in healthcare: a scoping review.

September 14, 2022

Addressing the Loss of Trust in Safety Culture.

September 7, 2022

Criminal liability for nursing and medical harm.

August 3, 2022

Factors influencing medication errors in the prehospital paramedic environment: a mixed method systematic review.

July 27, 2022

Dashboards for visual display of patient safety data: a systematic review.

October 27, 2021

Reporting of unsafe conditions at an academic women and children's hospital.

September 29, 2021

Interventions and measurements of highly reliable/resilient organization implementations: a literature review.

October 28, 2020

A narrative review of strategies to increase patient safety event reporting by residents.

September 30, 2020

Scoping review of patients' attitudes about their role and behaviours to ensure safe care at the direct care level.

August 26, 2020

Reimagining Healing after Healthcare Harm: The Potential for Restorative Practices.

July 29, 2020

Whistleblowing over patient safety and care quality: a review of the literature.

November 13, 2019

Adverse events in the operating room: definitions, prevalence, and characteristics. A systematic review.

October 16, 2019

Commissioning simulations to test new healthcare facilities: a proactive and innovative approach to healthcare system safety.

September 11, 2019

Safety-I, Safety-II and burnout: how complexity science can help clinician wellness.

July 17, 2019

Prevention of opioid overdose.

June 26, 2019

The 2018 Gosport Independent Panel report into deaths at the National Health Service's Gosport War Memorial Hospital. Does the culture of the medical profession influence health outcomes?

June 12, 2019

Catastrophic drug errors involving tranexamic acid administered during spinal anaesthesia.

June 5, 2019

Healthcare scandals and the failings of doctors: do official inquiries hold the profession to account?

March 20, 2019

Prescribing in 2019: what are the safety concerns?

March 13, 2019

Artificial intelligence systems for complex decision-making in acute care medicine: a review.

March 13, 2019

Challenging authority and speaking up in the operating room environment: a narrative synthesis.

February 27, 2019

Comfort with uncertainty: reframing our conceptions of how clinicians navigate complex clinical situations.

February 13, 2019

Importance of safety climate, teamwork climate and demographics: understanding nurses, allied health professionals and clerical staff perceptions of patient safety.

January 30, 2019

Barriers to self-reporting patient safety incidents by paramedics: a mixed methods study.

January 23, 2019

Usability testing of a mobile app to report medication errors anonymously: mixed-methods approach.

January 16, 2019

Shifting and sharing: academic physicians' strategies for navigating underperformance and failure.

December 19, 2018

Silent witnesses: faculty reluctance to report medical students' professionalism lapses.

November 28, 2018

See More About The Topic

Hospitals

Health Care Providers

Medicine

Psychological and Social Complications

Epidemiology of Errors and Adverse Events

Complications: acknowledging, managing, and coping with human error.

There is an app for that: mobile technology improves complication reporting and resident perception of their role in patient safety

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Complications: acknowledging, managing, and coping with human error.

There is an app for that: mobile technology improves complication reporting and resident perception of their role in patient safety

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site