Qualitative research on clinical risk perception in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

Background: the Pediatric Intensive Care field is characterized by the criticality of newborns and children who access it, as well as by a high complexity of care. This entails the need of an optimal integration between the various professional figures working in Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) and their ability to work in team.

Purpose: to describe how nurses perceive clinical risk and relate to it; to identify adverse events and related risk factors.

Methods: the focus group was used to identify and analyze the risks, or possible risks, that may occur in the intensive pediatric field. Nine nurses with different work experience in PICU, two moderators and one external observer participated in the focus group.

Results: through qualitative analysis, 9 themes describing the clinical risk perception by nurses working in PICUs were identified: teamwork, specific training, time management, team communication, clinical management, individual errors, facility criticalities, patient factors/characteristics, standardization.

Conclusions: the culture of safety can be promoted by management through learning spirit and free speech without fearing negative effects.