Establishment of a risk management system and support for enhancing risk awareness in nurses with experiences of medical malpractice

2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 14572296
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Clinical nursing
• Research Institution: Okayama Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: YOKOTE Yoshie Okayama Prefectural University, Faculty of Health and Welfare Science, Department of Nursing, Professor, 保健福祉学部, 教授 (80200905)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMADA Takako Okayama Prefectural University, Faculty of Health and Welfare Science, Department of Nursing, Instructor, 保健福祉学部, 助手 (60382363)
• Project Period (FY): 2002 – 2005
• Keywords: medical malpractice / risk management / metacognition / sensitivity of patient risks / support a party concerned / foresight of patient risks / safety management system

Research Abstract

Functions of risk managers that fulfill the establishment of a safety system at hospital A were determined as a result of a 4-year research activity. These features were "accident prevention measures", "pursuit of ethics", and "organizational activity". In addition, interview surveys of 22 nurses with experiences of medical malpractice at medical facilities in prefecture B revealed the following : 1) recounting the accident experience (during the interview) aroused risk awareness in nurses, and enabled them to learn through facing up to the experience ; 2) there exists a structure in clinical settings whereby nurses' foresight of patient risks can be disturbed.
Such disturbances may result in human errors.