This kind of brainstorming very useful, and it represents the opinion of experts.  Expert opinion is quite valuable, but is a low level of evidence for practice compared to scientific studies, so be sure to complement the ideas generated with published science.

Dear Martha,

You can encourage your colleagues to participate in this discussion.

In my opinion the better education is a key

 Better education is one of them. Others?

There are different types of errors.

look up this study:

http://bmcnurs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6955-11-20

include different levels of the curriculum of nurses, instances theoretical and practical to put these into context and build skills to cope with these situations.

the error is an excellent instance of learning.

I think the question should be "how to minimize nursing errors" rather than aiming to prevent it since nursing itself is not purely a science (it is both a science and art). Interesting topic.  As many commentators have already said, better education is paramount to minimising errors. 

I will be grateful if you tell your solving for each of problems step by step. 

Collaboration with interdisciplinary team members can best be accomplished through the use of an evidence-based plan of care where all team members work to achieve the same goals/outcomes. Ideally, all team members are allowed access to this plan of care which is easiest when the plan is electronic. All on the team will document the interventions they perform and progress made toward meeting the patient's goals.

High risk:

While transferring patient care to another nurse or unit;

When mechanical/equipment alarms or issues have become chronic so alarm-fatigue dulls nurse response to them. We fall back on less accurate "visual" or judgments like: "Oh, those oxygen saturation sensors have been pretty faulty lately due to shorts in wiring -- that young woman is just hyperventilating and her sats are not really in the 70's" --- later the pt. deteriorates and dies because, though young and healthy in appearance she had Lupus and developed severe Pulmonary Hypertension and came into the Emergency Department on a busy night and waited for care and even longer for real attention. Similar human behaviour has been identified as key reasons airliners crash --- you might wish to explore airline accident root causes as there are some similarities (more than we like to think).

The risk of errors could be minimised by a number of things:

1. Better training and support for newly qualified nurses - a hard lesson to learn as a student nurse/newly qualified nurse is that there is a larger team and environment to that they are working in. It is essential to not be so focussed on what you are doing that you are blinkered to the wider team.

2. Funding - poor funding of the healthcare system has a huge impact on the staffing of wards; which in turn has an impact on staff moral, nurses ability to complete all tasks that are needed within a suitable timescale and to an acceptable standard, and staff education (if there is not enough money to staff the wards and units adequately, staff will not be given the time to complete essential training)

Communication - As I have already mentioned, staff often get blinkered to what is going on around them; especially if staffing is limited, stress levels are high, moral is low, and supplementary training has been limited. It is essential that, as a team, all staff (nursing and allied healthcare professionals)communicate effectively so that plans of care can be developed and implemented effectively. If this does not happen, this is where mistakes are made.

Just a partial answer but one of the most dangerous times is during transfer of care from one shift or unit to another. Consider also that often the doctors and nurses are changing shift around the same time so it is very easy to not communicate adequately for pt. safety. Longer shifts (12 hours) = 1/3 fewer daily care transfers = increased safety. Also equipment alarm or persistent problems become "background noise" and dull staff response sensitivities -- I am told similar problems brought down airliners as well. Lastly, understaffing due to employee issues, high acuity or influenza season or ??? especially since this taxes the doctors too. Several incidents I have looked at closely had most of these things in common. Usually several "smaller" problems result in major failures. Best wishes

Some errors are not reported deliberately, while some go unnoticed. During nurse training it is important to emphasize the moral, ethical and legal implications of nursing interventions, thus students learning to be careful when executing patient care. Empowering students and practising nurses with values such as honesty, empathy, respect for human life, patient advocacy etc. Improving staff morale and recognition/ acknowledgement of good work and other staff motivation strategies. Using the road safety principles e.g. if you don't fasten your safety belt when driving , the traffic officer poses a fine, this encourages the driver to fasten safety belt. Knowing in advance the sanctions posed by the employer, Professional Nursing Council or court of law could help. In-service education on patient safety.  Some errors are identified by patients and can be reverted. Informing the patient about his/her rights and responsibilities from admission and involvement in his own care programme, Responsive inter-disciplinary partnerships and communication (especially documented communication). 

It should be mentioned that errors could be errors of commision , that is performing the wrong thing and errors of ommisions. My phd study concentrate on missed nursing care which lies under errors of ommision. Improvement of staffing levels, practice environment and teamwork could be possible ways to reduce these errors. Health information technology could work such as the use of electronic reminders.

I wanted to add that when an effective verbal tool was used I witnessed dramatic improvement in not just pt. safety but morale and mutual respect.

We started using the SBAR format when we had to contact another nurse or, especially, a doctor.

Situation, Background, Assessment & Recommendation --

- many nurses struggle to communicate the reason they called in about 30-45 seconds -- losing the attention of the clinician AND (very importantly) annoying the clinician, triggering the nurse to feel shaken, upset and creating distraction from the task at hand. It was wonderful and effective to communicate well AND to be expected to make a recommendation to which the clinician could then agree or not. 

Communication. 

In the clinical context, mentors play a crucial role, and a robust mentorship plan is essential to ensuring that nursing students learn effectively.

Proper training of nursing personnel and creation of a strict monitoring environment is necessary to prevent errors. Health professionals such as nurses play a small role in the occurrence of errors, and the main reason of it is not to pay enough attention to following the instructions.

To minimize nursing errors, it is essential to adhere to the rights of medication administration. This includes involving the patient and their family in the process, as well as respecting other rights. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that we are well rested, not distracted, and utilizing the most up to date resources for drug information.