What would you do if you noticed another clinician make a mistake when treating a patient?
Medical mistakes are impactful and can range from minor to life-threatening. The interviewer asks this question to understand the value you place on patient safety, your ability to follow protocols, and to address issues and mistakes in a timely manner. When responding, you can provide a specific example that highlights your skills and abilities to handle this type of situation. If you have not experienced this situation, walk the interviewer through how you would respond and address the issue.
"Patient safety is my top priority. Giving feedback to other team members can be hard but even though I'm a new graduate, if I noticed a mistake, I would quickly speak up and address the issue with the clinician. I would do so in a professional and private manner, speaking directly about what I felt I had observed and sticking to the facts. If it were a critical matter, say for example, I witnessed a patient being administered the wrong medication, I would speak up immediately to prevent the mistake from causing harm to the patient. The approach is important, so maintaining a professional tone and not appearing accusatory or belittling would be the goal in this situation. Hopefully, they would quickly address it and we could move forward."
"Healthcare workers often work long shifts, so it's important that everyone on the care team is focused and vigilant. This often means, being the second set of eyes to another clinician, as a layer of safety. If I noticed a mistake, I would immediately speak up, but in a professional and polite way, as I worked to confirm what I thought was a mistake. I would never be accusatory, because there is a chance I did not see or hear something correctly. If the patient's safety is at stake, it's important to speak up and ask questions and verify information, to ensure no mistake was made that could harm a patient. It's all about your approach and the relationships that you've built with the team. Everyone should feel comfortable bringing an issue to another person's attention and working as a team to correct them."
"We're all human and mistakes happen. If it were something minor, I would approach them in a professional and non-confrontational way and try to help re-educate them on the proper way to do something. There are many situations where a mistake requires special reporting, so depending on the severity of the mistake, I would intervene to make sure the patient was safe, then notify the appropriate leaders and complete necessary reporting paperwork."
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