Medical errors and clinical misdiagnoses are highly prevalent in modern healthcare institutions. However, some factors contributing to clinical mistakes are beyond practitioners’ control. For example, some institutions have disorganized workflows, which prevent nurses and clinicians from communicating effectively, thus resulting in errors. Nevertheless, clinicians’ health and wellness significantly determine their ability to deliver high-quality healthcare services, as these factors interfere with their morale and dedication. The article by Melnyk et al. (2018) suggests that nurses’ mental health is associated with the occurrence of medical errors since it predisposes them to make mistakes. Thus, it is advisable to champion health and wellness programs for professionals in medical institutions and create opportunities to encourage alertness during work activities to minimize errors and achieve healthcare goals.
Hospital environments are highly pressured, thus necessitating nurses to engage in various initiatives simultaneously. Additionally, nurses experience personal and family issues that often come in the way of their profession by increasing their stress and exposing them to depression and other mental conditions. As a result, these factors can interfere with their ability to deliver effectively in their work positions, thus resulting in higher numbers of medical errors and clinical mistakes. The research by Melnyk et al. (2018) proves that nurses’ mental health and wellness are associated with medical errors in institutions based on a cross-sectional study conducted on 1790 nurses in the US. The authors found that nurses experiencing deteriorated health were more likely to have medical errors than healthy nurses.
Similarly, nurses’ physical health is associated with their levels of medical errors because poor health limits nurses from delivering on their responsibilities as expected and encourages negligence. According to Melnyk et al. (2018), nurses with poor health negatively perceive their work environments, thus interfering with their engagement. Their research proposes that overall health and perceived worksite wellness are correlated to medical errors because of their implications on nurses’ motivation and dedication (Melnyk et al., 2018). Therefore, practitioners suffering from suboptimal health expose their patients to high risks as they cannot focus on their work.
Burnout is one of the leading causes of dissatisfaction and poor mental and physical health among nurses. Therefore, dealing with medical errors requires addressing nurse issues from their root cause by providing them with a supportive environment to carry out their activities. In addition, although nurses focus on improving others’ lives, they often forget to take care of themselves and end up suffering from ill health. As a result, it is advisable to establish programs within the institution to inform nurses of the value of good health and encourage them to prioritize their health and wellness. Dealing with these issues will open up new ways to handle problems of medical errors and champion their prevention.
Nurses and clinicians work in hectic environments that obligate straining to address critical individuals’ concerns. However, these professionals often forget to take care of themselves, thus limiting them from performing their duties. Medical errors in institutions are due to nurses’ poor mental and physical health, which interferes with their abilities. Therefore, administrators should provide nurses with a conducive working environment and engage them in programs encouraging them to prioritize their health. Subsequently, a healthy task force is better positioned to note the mistakes that contribute to medical mishaps and adopt various strategies to limit their occurrence.
Reference
Melnyk, B. M., Orsolini, L., Tan, A., Arslanian-Engoren, C., Melkus, G. D. E., Dunbar-Jacob, J.,…& Lewis, L. M. (2018). A national study links nurses’ physical and mental health to medical errors and perceived worksite wellness. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 60(2), 126-131. Web.