International Graduate Conference on Science, Humanities and Engineering 2011 (IGCSHE2011)

Background: Human errors occur in every profession. Medical errors can result in an incident or an actual injury toa patient who has nothing to do with the underlying disease. Intensive care is one of the highest prevalence ofmedical errors and patient injury in any particular medical field, believed to be related to the rapidly changingpatient status and complex diagnoses and treatments.Aims: The primary aim of this study is to investigate whether nurses' experiences of the most common medicalerrors in intensive care and cardiac intensive care.The secondary aim: to assess the nature, consequences and associations of medical errors in ICU / CCUs toinvestigate the factors influencing nurses' errors and to propose strategies to prevent errors.Setting: Five intensive care units (ICU) and two cardiac intensive care unit (CCU) in five public hospitals and acardiac care unit at a private hospital in the West Bank in Palestine.Participants: Fifteen nurses (12 ICU nurses, three CCU nurses) who have at least worked for four years in thecritical and cardiac care units.Design: Using a qualitative approach, a hermenutic phemenological method. Semi-structured interviews guided byan interiew guide.Results: Nurses'experiences of the most common medical errors in ICUand CCU presented in nine themes:medication errors, equipment errors, the patient's fault monitoring, resuscitation errors, nursing practice error,intravenous solutions errors, nursing care errors, documentation and evaluation errors and communication errorsbetween the health team.Conclusion: Practical nurses made significantly more medical errors than staff nurses. Working frequent shifts of24 hours is a strong factor for committing medical errors. Increase the competence and the number of nurses perpatient and reduce the number of working hours can reduce medical errors and address patient safety in intensiveand cardiac care units.