How perioperative nurses define, attribute causes of, and react to intraoperative nursing errors.

Errors in nursing practice pose a continuing threat to patient safety. A descriptive, correlational study was conducted to examine the definitions, circumstances, and perceived causes of intraoperative nursing errors; reactions of perioperative nurses to intraoperative nursing errors; and the relationships among coping with intraoperative nursing errors, emotional distress, and changes in practice made as a result of error. The results indicate that strategies of accepting responsibility and using self-control are significant predictors of emotional distress. Seeking social support and planful problem solving emerged as significant predictors of constructive changes in practice. Most predictive of defensive changes was the strategy of escape/avoidance. Copyright 2010 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.