How to improve patient care by learning from mistakes
Intended for healthcare professionals
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How to improve patient care by learning from mistakes

Mike Brady Paramedic, Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Open University, Swansea University

Mike Brady explains why healthcare services need non-punitive working cultures to ensure that staff can identify and understand errors in practice

Mistakes made in healthcare settings and the challenges to staff that arise from them can harm service users, consume time and money, and often receive bad publicity. However, by learning from these mistakes and meeting these challenges, practitioners can improve the quality of the care they provide. This article explores what is meant by mistakes and challenges in the context of health care. It suggests that front line managers are best placed to prevent and learn from mistakes, and thereby improve care for patients.

Emergency Nurse. 20, 9, 32-35. doi: 10.7748/en2013.02.20.9.32.e679

Correspondence

james.brady@gwas.nhs.uk

Peer review

This article has been subject to double blind peer review

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 29 May 2012

Accepted: 23 October 2012

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