Parents have an instinct which can be very useful especially in keeping their children safe from harm. But a recent study showed how it can also be a factor to help improve hospital safety and prevent medical mistakes.
"As anyone who has ever been hospitalized knows, hospitals are very complex places where there are a lot of moving parts, and errors are bound to happen despite all of our best efforts," said Dr. Alisa Khan, the study's lead author and a pediatrics researcher at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. "I think we-including parents-can all work together to keep children safe," she added.
To gather enough information for the study, the experts have reviewed the past data of almost 383 kids which have been hospitalized from 2013 to 2014. Their parents have also been required to answer surveys with questions regarding their children's confinement, as posted by the Review Journal.
As to the result of the research, it showed one out of ten parents have discovered several mistakes that physicians were not aware or might have missed, as posted by the Legal Reader. Because of the findings experts suggest parents have this natural ability where they can detect medical errors which specialists sometimes commit.
"A parent knows their child better than any member of the health care team does, stands by their bedside and plays an active role in their child's health care delivery throughout their hospitalization and after discharge," said Dr. Irini Kolaitis, a pediatrics researcher at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago who wasn't involved in the study. "...and often has a sense when something is not right," she added. That's why for that reason, it is crucial to never set aside a parent's instinct for it will always be a great help in caring for the children.
