Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This study assesses the competencies of a nurse medical safety manager based on the nurse’s account of her experiences, involving mental exhaustion of responding to medical accidents in which the nurse experienced difficulties. A nurse medical safety manager received the consent of health service manager to participate in the study. In an unstructured interview, the subject was asked to talk freely about her experiences including mental exhaustion in responding to the medical accident that she found most challenging in the past. A narrative analysis of the verbatim record of the interview was performed to extract factors associated with nursing competencies. 1.The subject was a female in her fifties with twenty-nine years of experience in nursing and two years of experience as a medical safety manager. 2. Extracted competencies included “remaining level-headed in performing the duties even as a less-experienced manager,” “arranging opportunities to experience the patient’s fortitude to live and his/her frustration, and to share the suffering,” “having sympathy in responding to the patient and family members despite the struggle of not being able to gain understanding,” “taking effective actions in building a trusted relationship,” and “preparing to communicate to a junior the value of nurses assuming the role of safety management.” Results suggest that the nurse safety manager’s competencies in responding to a challenging medical accident are founded on her own nursing philosophies and her nursing management experiences as a chief nursing officer.