Effect of Professionalism Level on Tendency to Make Medical Errors in Nurses

Aim: The aim of the present study was toexamine the relationship between the occupational professionalism level ofhospital nurses and their tendency to make medical errors. This was adescriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study.

Method: The study was conducted betweenJune 2013 and January 2015 in four hospitals providing general diagnosis,treatment, and care services. Four hundred fifty-nine nurses were included inthe study. A questionnaire including a Personal Information Form, ProfessionalManner in Occupation Inventory, and Tendency to Medical Error in Nursing Scalewas used to collect data. The study was approved by the hospitals’ ethicscommittees and institutions. Data were analyzed using Cronbach’s alphaanalysis, frequency and percentage distributions, descriptive statistics,Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, Dunnett T3 Post Hoc test,simple linear regression analysis, and t-test.

Results: Nurses’ occupationalprofessionalism levels were high (M=137.06±15.23), and tendency to medical errorlevels were low (M=223.24±25.28). The majority of the nurses consideredthemselves quite professional and had not made any medical errors previously.There was a strong and highly significant negative relationship (p<0.001)between their occupational professionalism and their tendency to medical error.There was a difference between the occupational professionalism levels ofnurses who made and did not make an occupational error (p<0.05), as well assignificant differences between their tendency to medical error according totheir perception of themselves as professionals (p<0.05). The occupationalprofessionalism manner of the nurses was determined to be 30% effective intheir tendency to medical error.

Conclusion: The occupationalprofessionalism manner of the nurses was found to negatively affect theirtendency to medical error.

Cite this article as: İşçi, N, Altuntaş, S.(2019). Effect of professionalism level on tendency to make medical errors innurses. FNJN Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 27(3), 241-252.