The Correlation Between Medical Errors And Suicidal Ideation Among Operating Room Nurses

BackgroundUnder the background of high quality development of social economy and medical and health services,medical safety has gradually become the focus of medical quality management.Medical errors not only impair the quality of life of patients,but also increase the risk of suicide for medical staff.According to the theory of interpersonal psychology,it could be concluded that after the occurrence of medical errors,medical staff will perceive burden due to the unmet social competency needs,which result in the occurrence of suicidal ideation.Previous studies have examined the association between medical errors and suicidal ideation in physicians and general medical staff.As a result of their particular nature of work,operating room nurses face a lot of medical errors.However,the suicide risk after medical errors among operating room nurses has not been focused yet.Meanwhile,previous studies mainly used traditional regression analysis methods to explore the association between medical errors and suicidal ideation,the research findings might be influenced by confounding factors.Therefore,this study intends to explore the net effect of medical errors on suicidal ideation based on the "counterfactual framework" of medical errors via propensity score matching method.ObjectiveBased on the interpersonal psychological theory of suicidal behavior,this study aims to explore the incidence of medical errors and suicidal ideation among operating room nurses,and find the influencing factors of medical errors and suicidal ideation.Based on the using of propensity score matching to control confounding factors,this study explores whether there is a net effect of medical errors on suicidal ideation,and the specific effect value of medical errors on suicidal ideation,so as to provide empirical evidence for suicide prevention and intervention among operating room nurses.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional study that adopted questionnaire star to survey 787 operating room nurses.In this study,Stata15.0(Stata Corp,College Station,TX,USA)and R language(version 4.2.2)were employed for data processing and statistical analysis.Propensity score matching was performed by the "Psmatch2" software package of Stata 15.0.The "Upster" software package of R language was used to draw the intersection graph.Descriptive analysis was used to describe the sample characteristics of operating room nurses,univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were employed to preliminarily explore the relationship between medical errors and suicidal ideation and explore related risk factors.The propensity score matching method was used to explore the net effect of medical error on suicidal ideation,and the balance test and robustness test were conducted for the net effect model of medical error on suicidal ideation.ResultsThis study found that 27.7%of operating room nurses experienced medical errors.There were statistically significant differences in medical errors among operating room nurses with different ages(OR=0.056,P=0.042),hospital level(OR=0.553,P=0.047)and working years(OR=-0.058,P=0.016).6.99%of operating room nurses had suicidal ideation,religious belief(OR=1.288,P=0.032)and medical error((OR=1.028,P<0.001)were risk factors for suicidal ideation among operating room nurses,while in marriage(OR=-0.759,P=0.045)was its protective factor.After controlling for the influence of confounding factors by using the propensity score matching method,there was a net effect model between medical errors(OR=1.177,P=0.013)and suicidal ideation.After the robustness test of the net effect model between medical errors and suicidal ideation,it can be seen that the average net effect of medical errors on suicidal ideation was 0.080,and indicated that medical errors significantly increased suicidal ideation by 8%after considering the selective bias of operating room nurses.Conclusions and suggestionsConclusionsThis study found that the incidence of suicidal ideation among operating room nursing staff was relatively high,after controlling for confounding factors,there was a a net effect between medical errors and suicidal ideation.Attention should be paid to the suicide risk of operating room nurses after medical errors,and suicide prevention and intervention needed to be provided timely.Suggestions1.Strengthen the screening and assessment of the suicide risk among operating room nurses.2.Strengthen management of medical quality to reduce the occurrence of medical errors.3.Early prevention and intervention of suicide risk should be paid for operating room nurses with medical errors.