How to Handle Mistakes in Healthcare: A Guide for Professionals

This video will guide you through the essential steps to take if you make a mistake in a healthcare setting. While the advice provided here is general, it's important to always follow your organisation's specific policies and procedures for reporting and handling mistakes.

1. Stay Calm and Collected

The first, and possibly the most important, thing to do when you realise you’ve made a mistake is to stay calm. Remaining composed allows you to think rationally and take the correct actions. Avoid overreacting, as this can cause unnecessary panic or fear in the patient. For example, don’t run around the facility in distress, but calmly assess the situation and act accordingly to help the patient.

2. Assess the Severity of the Situation

Once you’ve calmed yourself, it’s crucial to assess the situation carefully. Determine how serious the mistake is and if it’s putting the patient at risk. If you believe the patient is in immediate danger or you're uncertain about their condition, it’s important to seek assistance from a more senior team member immediately. This could be a senior nurse, doctor, or team leader.

3. Take Action and Seek Help

If you are the first to respond and first aid is necessary, you should act promptly to prevent further deterioration of the patient’s condition. However, in some cases, it may be necessary for you to safely leave the patient and find a more experienced healthcare professional to handle the situation. Make sure that someone more senior is made aware of the incident if this hasn’t already been done.

4. Handle the Emotional Impact

Making mistakes can be difficult not only for the patient and their loved ones but also for the person who made the error. It’s important to recognise that everyone makes mistakes at some point. Allow yourself to feel bad about it for a short while, but then move on and learn from the situation. Dwelling on the mistake won't help, but learning from it and making improvements will.

5. Learn from the Experience

Once you’ve processed the mistake, use your new knowledge to avoid similar errors in the future. Share what you’ve learned with others in your workplace. Show your colleagues that mistakes happen and that it's not the mistake itself, but how we learn and grow from it, that matters. By setting a positive example, you can help others learn from your experience and reduce the chances of the same mistake happening again.

Conclusion

In healthcare, mistakes are part of being human. However, it’s how we respond to them that counts. By staying calm, ensuring patient safety, seeking assistance, learning from the incident, and sharing that knowledge with others, we can improve both our own practice and that of our colleagues, while providing the best care possible to our patients.