NURSING ERRORS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH FATIGUE AMONG NURSES OF THE EMERGENCY WARD

Errors in health care systems is a damaging phenomenon, and in some cases irreversible. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of nursing errors and its relation with fatigue in nurse's emergency ward. The present study was a cross-sectional research conducted on the nurses who were working in the emergency wards of the selected hospitals affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences in 2014. Data collection was carried out through Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI), Nursing Errors Questionnaire, and Demographic Information Questionnaire. Out of the studied nurses, 88 (51.8%) were women, and 82 (48.2%) were men. The mean and the standard deviation of the nurses’ age were 23.2±6.6 years. The mean and the standard deviation of their work experience were 8.4±6.3 years. There was a positive and significant relationship between the occurrence of nursing errors and activity decrease (p=0.021, r=0.17), mental fatigue (p=0.009, r=0.19), and the total score of fatigue (p=0.023, r=0.17) (P<0.05). Possible effects of fatigue can cause the increasing of nursing errors in therapeutic environments, and it can reduce patient sofety and care quality.Considering individual and occupational factors can be effective in reducing the negative consequences of fatigue and errors in patient safety.