Question

A nurse is teaching about near-miss events to a group of nursing students. What is appropriate for the nurse to include in the education? Select all that apply.

1) They do not cause actual harm to the patient.
2) They may cause moderate harm to the patient.
3) They are caused by impaired immune functioning.
4) D. They are caused by a variation in standard care.
5) Their cause can be analyzed by failure mode effective analysis.

Answer 1

In teaching about near-miss events, appropriate points include that they do not cause actual harm, are caused by a variation in standard care, and can be analyzed using failure mode effective analysis (FMEA).

Step-by-step explanation:

When educating nursing students about near-miss events, it is appropriate for the nurse to include the following information:

• Near-miss events do not cause actual harm to the patient.
• They have potential for harm, but by definition, they do not result in injury or damage.
• Near-miss events are caused by a variation in standard care.
• Their cause can be analyzed by failure mode effective analysis (FMEA), which is a systematic, proactive method for evaluating a process to identify where and how it might fail and to assess the relative impact of different failures, in order to identify the parts of the process that are most in need of change.

Option 3, that they are caused by impaired immune functioning, is not appropriate to include because near-miss events are process or system-related, not related to patient-specific conditions. Option 2 is also not correct because near-miss events do not cause harm to the patient, moderate or otherwise.