Experiences of nurses regarding adverse events in a public hospital in Gauteng

M.Cur. (Nursing Management)Abstract: Patient safety has been on the national and international agenda for years, with policies on how hospitals should respond to and analyze adverse events being revised and reviewed constantly. Despite all these measures in place, nurse-related adverse events are escalating. When care falls short of standards, nurses shoulder much of the responsibility. Personal involvement in an adverse event can be a demoralizing experience, with shame, loss of confidence, and inability to admit to errors as obstacles to improving patient safety. It is against this background that the researcher seeks to explore and describe the experiences of the nurses who were involved in nurse-related adverse events in order to develop recommendations regarding these experiences. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of nurses who were involved in nurse-related adverse events in a public hospital in Gauteng, in order to develop recommendations regarding their experiences. The researcher used a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual research design for this study. The population consisted of nurses employed at this hospital. A purposive sampling method was used to select a sample from the population who consented to participate in this study. Data was collected by means of in-depth, semi-structured, individual interviews, focus group interviews, and two naïve sketches. An audio tape-recorder was used with the permission of the participants to capture their responses. Data was analyzed using Tesch’s Open Coding Method. In order to protect the rights of the participants and uphold criteria of trustworthiness throughout the study, ethical principles with adhered to. The study’s findings revealed the central theme that revealed that participants experienced the adverse events negatively. Three main themes emerged as follows: negative emotional experiences; negative social experiences; and inappropriate management practices..