Abstract
Diagnostic errors are among the most common medical errors and the deadliest. The National Academy of Medicine recently concluded that diagnostic errors represent an urgent national concern. Their first recommendation to address this issue called for promoting the key role of the nurse in the diagnostic process. Registered nurses across clinical settings significantly contribute to the medical diagnostic process, though their role in diagnosis has historically gone unacknowledged. In this paper, we review the history and current state of diagnostic education in pre-licensure registered nurse preparation, introduce interprofessional individual- and team-based competencies to improve diagnostic safety, and discuss the next steps for nursing education. Nurses educated and empowered to fully participate in the diagnostic process are essential for achieving better, safer patient outcomes.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 362-369 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Nursing outlook |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 1 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:K. Gleason receives funding from the following sources: NIH NCATS Institutional Career Development Core, KL2 TR003099, NIH NCATS Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, UL1TR003098, and AHRQ A Human Factors and Systems Approach for Understanding the Diagnostic Process and Associated Safety Hazards in the Emergency Department, R01 HS 027198. M.L. Graber receives grant funding from the Macy Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)
Keywords
- Diagnostic error
- Education
- Nursing