Failure to report as a breach of moral and professional expectation

Cases of poor care have been documented across the world. Contrary to professional requirements, evidence indicates that these sometimes go unaddressed. For patients the outcomes of this inaction are invariably negative. Previous work has either focused on why poor care occurs and what might be done to prevent it, or on the reasons why those who are witness to it find it difficult to raise their concerns. Here we build on this work but specifically foreground the responsibilities of registrants and students who witness poor care. Acknowledging the challenges associated with raising concerns, we make the case that failure to address poor care is a breach of moral expectation, professional requirement and sometimes, legal frameworks. We argue that reporting will be more likely to take place if those who wish to enter the profession have a realistic view of the challenges they may encounter. When nurses are provided with robust and applied education on ethics, when ‘real-world’ cases and exemplars are used in practice and when steps are taken to develop and encourage individual moral courage, we may begin to see positive change. Ultimately however, significant change is only likely to take place where practice cultures invite and welcome feedback, promote critical reflection, and where strong, clear leadership support is shown by those in positions of influence across organisations

Implementation of incident reporting systems in Norwegian nursing homes from a management perspective — a pilot study

Artikkelen beskriver en studie hvor hensikten var å beskrive i hvilken grad norske sykehjem har implementert system for avvikshåndtering fra et ledelsesperspektiv. Studien er gjennomført ved å sende spørreskjema til et utvalg norske kommuner. Totalt 30 svarte på undersøkelsen, og alle hadde etablert en hendelse rapporteringssystem, men funnene tyder på at vi ikke har klart å integrere systemene i praksis.An incident reporting system is important for continual improvement in nursing homes. The purpose of this study is to describe the extent to which Norwegian nursing homes have implemented incident reporting systems from a management perspective. The study is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative and descriptive design, and is conducted by sending questionnaires to a sample of Norwegian municipalities. A total of 30 responded to the survey and all had established an incident reporting system, but the findings indicate that we have failed to integrate the systems in practice. A large drop-off makes the results hard to generalize, and there is a need for further research and monitoring of status