Nutrition Maternelle et Pédiatrique
Libre accès

Abstrait

Feeding Related Errors Jeopardize Safe Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Safaa Abd EL Hamid Nasr ELMeneza

Neonatal intensive care units (NICU), currently considered as technological driven environment, there is great advances and progress regarding respiratory support equipment as well as growing interest in training personnel regarding safe strategies and modalities involving use of mechanical ventilation. Still other care modalities do not have the same vigilance as feeding process and procedures that subsequently may be associated with medical errors and incidents.

Harmful incidents as adverse events cause morbidity often with devastating results, while non harmful incidents as near misses may serve as free lessons to the health care workers. Medical error ensues owing to active failure and or latent failure. Active failure contains incidents related to persons as doctors and nurses, whereas latent failure involves errors associated to the system. Imperfect data management, demanding environment, insufficient training of staffs and unproductive communication systems are several models of latent failures.

The impact of medical errors may be ameliorated once thorough investigation and causal factors as well as consequences are tackled and preclusion measures are implemented. NICU‟s medical and nursing staff should be familiar with patient safety language, implement best practices, and support safety culture, maximizing efforts for reducing errors. Furthermore, top management commitment and support in developing patient safety culture is essential in order to assure the achievement of the desirable organizational safety outcomes.