Identification and Assessment of Human Errors in Postgraduate Endodontic Students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences by Using the SHERPA Method

Introduction: Human errors are the cause of many accidents, including industrial and medical, therefore finding out an approach for identifying and reducing them is very important. Since no study has been done about human errors in the dental field, this study aimed to identify and assess human errors in postgraduate endodontic students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences by using the SHERPA Method. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed during year 2014. Data was collected using task observation and interviewing postgraduate endodontic students. Overall, 10 critical tasks, which were most likely to cause harm to patients were determined. Next, Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) was conducted and human errors in each task were identified by the Systematic Human Error Reduction Prediction Approach (SHERPA) technique worksheets. Results: After analyzing the SHERPA worksheets, 90 human errors were identified including (67.7%) action errors, (13.3%) checking errors, (8.8%) selection errors, (5.5%) retrieval errors and (4.4%) communication errors. As a result, most of them were action errors and less of them were communication errors. Conclusions: The results of the study showed that the highest percentage of errors and the highest level of risk were associated with action errors, therefore, to reduce the occurrence of such errors and limit their consequences, control measures including periodical training of work procedures, providing work check-lists, development of guidelines and establishment of a systematic and standardized reporting system, should be put in place. Regarding the results of this study, the control of recovery errors with the highest percentage of undesirable risk and action errors with the highest frequency of errors should be in the priority of contro