Knowledge, Attitude and Barriers to Reporting near Miss Incidents in a Tertiary Care Hospital – A Descriptive Study

Background: There is a 1 in 300 chance of a patient being harmed during health care. (10 Facts on Patient Safety, 2019). Fundamentally, near misses occur more frequently, 7-100 times more than actual adverse event (Aspden P, 2004). But, it was found that near misses are infrequently documented and sometimes go unnoticed in daily clinical practice (Lee, 2021) Little attention has been given to near-miss reporting specifically despite their value in organizational learning (Helge Klapper, 2019). Therefore, understanding the knowledge, attitude and barriers to reporting near misses is essential for better patient safety related outcomes. Aim: To assess the knowledge, attitude and understand the barriers to reporting of near miss events among healthcare workers in a selected tertiary care hospital to enhance existing measures to increase near miss reporting to build a safe environment for patients and employees. Methods: The descriptive study was conducted among 400 healthcare workers of a tertiary care hospital who have been selected using non-probability purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using a demographic proforma, knowledge questionnaire, and 5-point Likert scales to assess the attitude and barriers of reporting near miss events. Analysis of the data was done using SPSS 16.0 with descriptive statistics. Results: The results of the study showed that out of 400 total participants, 183(45.8%) had good knowledge. Majority of the participants 203 (50.8%) had unfavourable attitude towards reporting near miss events and the major barriers identified to reporting near miss events by the participants were lack of awareness that near misses should be reported (62.5%), belief that reporting near miss events is not worthy (81%), lack of incentives and rewards upon reporting near miss events (92.3%) and difficulty in reporting near miss incidents in English language (60%). Conclusion: Near miss events are often remains under-reported. Therefore, knowledge on near miss reporting needs to be enhanced and the identified barriers needs to be addressed for the participants to have more favourable attitude towards reporting near miss events.