Nurses’ Experiences with Disclosure of Patient Safety Incidents: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Patient safety incidents trigger conflict between healthcare providers and patients. Patients and families want to hear detailed explanations and apologies from medical staff, but nurses may face difficulties with disclosure of patient safety incidents. PURPOSE: To identify nurses’ experiences with disclosure of patient safety incidents. METHODS: Data were collected through in-depth interviews with nine clinical and five head nurses and were analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method. FINDINGS: After formulating 18 themes representing nurses’ experiences with disclosure of patient safety incidents, we clustered them into four theme clusters: “mixed responses from patients and families,” “caught in a swirl of negative emotions,” “facing the reality that hinders disclosure,” and “waiting for a breakthrough that would enable disclosure”. CONCLUSION: Policies, systems, and culture that help both patients and healthcare professionals should be developed.