The Experience of Nursing Students Who Make Mistakes in Clinical

Abstract

The experience of nursing students who make mistakes during clinical practice is poorly understood. The literature identifies clinical practice mistakes as a significant issue in nursing practice and education but there is very little research on the topic. This study used a grounded theory approach to explore the experience of undergraduate nursing students who had made at least one mistake in their clinical practice. What emerged is a theory that illuminates the process of how students move through the positive and negative elements of the mistake experience the core variable that emerged from the study was "living through the mistake experience." The mistake experience was clearly a traumatic process for nursing students and students reported feeling unprepared and lacking the capability to manage the mistake experience. A number of recommendations for nursing education are proposed.

Nursing Students' Opinions on Facilitating and Hindering Factors in the Clinical Training Setting

“…This result is also in the same line with Sharif & Masoumi, (2005) [24], Löfmark & Wikblad, (2001) [19] who mentioned that students are mainly anxious about making errors when performing patient procedures or injuring patients because they have no experience and knowledge. These fears and anxieties adversely affect the competence of students to practice effectively [25,26].…”

Nursing students’ experiences of patient safety incidents and reporting: A scoping review

“…[34] Nursing students struggle with skills related to following procedures or interpreting policies, including medication preparation. [31,35] Additionally, students described their involvement in medication errors of omission. [7,36] Nursing students have also reported witnessing unsafe incidents by health professionals.…”

Nursing students' errors in clinical learning. Qualitative outcomes in Mixed Methods Research

“…Although the situation is at an unacceptable level, with serious damages, only the tip of the iceberg is known; there is no taxonomy for classification of errors. These occurrences can be a way of constructive learning by replacing blame for prevention (5)(6) . As in all security systems, errors do not have genesis in a single cause but in multiple convergences.…”