Q: How can we use mistakes to improve health care?

Two British psychologists gave 315 health professionals a number of short scenarios describing various errors and asked them how likely they were to report each incident.

• All were reluctant to report adverse events to a superior.

• Doctors were more reluctant to report them than nurses or midwives.

• All were more likely to report them when a protocol had been violated and the outcome had been bad.

The authors conclude that the NHS should look to other organisations, such as Shell Petroleum and British Airways, where more proactive systems of error management are used.

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“The importance of using all types of error to bring about safer care needs …