Healthcare Professionals' Culture Toward Reporting Errors in the Oncology Setting

Introduction: Reporting an error during a hospital journey is crucial to reduce such errors' recurrence and to learn from events. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate oncology staff's attitudes, perceived barriers, and strategy towards reporting incidents and errors. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among health professionals providing care to cancer patients in a tertiary healthcare hospital in Saudi Arabia in 2019. Data were collected using an online self-administered questionnaire distributed to the targeted population. Results: A total of 211 participated in this study. Sixty-five percent of responders reported that they felt a need to reveal errors. The leading perceived barrier to reporting the events was that the staff wanted to avoid getting into trouble (60%), followed by worries about legal action (59.2%). The top-ranking strategy to improve reporting by nurses was to have clear guidelines to report errors, education and feedback by doctors, and further education and training by allied healthcare. Conclusion: The study revealed that healthcare professionals do possess a favorable attitude toward reporting errors. However, a major gap is still a barrier between attitude and practice, and this need creating a safe atmosphere where every healthcare professional feels safe and comfortable with reporting incidents is required to build a non-punitive environment to enhance the safety culture. On the other hand, the respondents listed different strategies to enhance reporting events and errors.