Improving service delivery using the self-reporting of errors by midwives and midwifery student

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Reporting medical errors is one of the common methods for identifying and preventing mistakes in-hospital care. This study was conducted to identify the status of reporting and related factors in two groups of midwives and midwifery students. METHODOLOGY: This research was analytic correlational; it was conducted among all the midwives working in the midwifery and labor departments and midwifery students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The data collection tool included a checklist of errors and the researcher-construed questionnaires of awareness and attitude toward reporting errors. The results were examined using descriptive and inferential statistics (ANOVA, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient, and independent t-test) by SPSS software version 20. RESULTS: In this research, the error reporting in midwifery staff was 79.1% and the most frequent error was related to the patient's process of testing; the error reporting among the students was 90% and the most frequent error occurred in the labor processes. The present study also showed that there was a direct relationship between awareness and attitude toward reporting medical errors (P < 0.001), while there was not a significant relationship between the midwifery students' awareness and attitude toward reporting the medical errors (P = 0.31). CONCLUSION: According to the study, hospital midwives reporting is less than midwifery students. Accordingly, it is recommended to focus on the error and risk management committee to strengthen the reporting system.

Keywords

• attitude
• awareness
• medical error
• midwife
• midwifery students
• reporting