Nurses’ Perceptions of Patient Safety and Errors in Nursing Practice: A Qualitative Study

Despite all the advances in the healthcare sector, many adverse events that threaten patient safety still occur. Among these errors are those involving nursing. The study aimed to explore nurses’ perceptions regarding patient safety and errors in nursing practice. This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach. An online, open-ended questionnaire was used. A total of 47 nurses from various healthcare institutions in different regions of Brazil took part in the study. Qualitative content analysis was carried out. Five themes were identified: (1) most common errors made during nursing practice; (2) feelings regarding errors that can occur during nursing practice; (3) measures taken to prevent errors during nursing practice; (4) actions taken after errors occurred during nursing practice, and (5) reasons for errors during nursing practice. The obtained results highlight that errors in medication administration, patient identification, patient mobilization, hand hygiene, and nursing documentation require special attention. Barriers caused by inadequate working conditions, poor communication, deficiencies in academic education, lack of in-service training and distractions were identified as reasons for errors in nursing practice. Administrators of educational and healthcare institutions, along with nursing educators and managers, play essential roles in developing strategies to prevent errors in nursing practice.