NLN
Promotes a Just Culture Approach with Health Care Errors
Kathleen Poindexter, PhD, RN, CNE, AFEF, NLN Chair
Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, President and CEO
National League for Nursing
Washington, DC — A Tennessee jury recently convicted RaDonda Vaught of criminal charges in connection with a medication administration error that contributed to the death of an elderly patient in 2017.
The National League for Nursing joins the American Nurses Association, among other professional organizations, in recognizing the danger associated with criminalizing health care errors. The best ways to address human medical error include astute management, close scrutiny, ongoing oversight, and continuous implementation of ever-evolving safeguards. Also vital are confidential, transparent organizational channels for all parties involved to come forward voluntarily, to honestly self-report mistakes.
The health and welfare of patients depends on nurses to deliver safe, quality care, as key members of a coordinated, professional team of providers that may include physicians, pharmacists, social workers and others. The complexity of medicine today is
reflected in the sophisticated, dynamic, high technology-driven environment that, given the high stakes of life and death decisions, not surprisingly, includes some level of risk.
In the delivery of care, processes may fail and mistakes occur. We believe it is vital to support a “just culture” where individuals are held accountable for misconduct or gross negligence, in an environment where individuals can report
errors and organizations can improve processes to promote safe and quality health care delivery. Effective peer review resulting in disciplinary actions, and civil proceedings must be utilized to promote public safety, as well as to provide
restitution for harm due to errors.
Nursing leaders have long been vocal about the priority to establish a culture of caring in all health care settings, from the largest university-affiliated medical centers to the humblest community-based health clinics treating underserved individuals
and families. Criminalizing health care errors threatens years of efforts to establish a just and caring culture.
About the National League for Nursing
Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers professional development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants,
and public policy initiatives to its nearly 45,000 individual and 1,100 institutional members, comprising nursing education programs across the spectrum of higher education and health care organizations. Learn more at NLN.org.
March 30, 2022
Source
Michael Keaton, Deputy Chief Communications Officer
mkeaton@nln.org
