Nurses are essential contributors to the diagnostic process and are in prime positions to facilitate improvements in diagnostic safety. Nursing leaders and educators are critical to recognizing nurses for their diagnostic contributions and leading future efforts to reduce diagnostic error and provide safe, effective care to patients.
Although frameworks are being developed in formal nursing education programs to emphasize training in diagnostic safety and quality, nursing leaders and educators need practical tools and action steps to build diagnostic safety awareness and to explain nurses’ roles within the diagnostic team. Nurses’ awareness and knowledge of diagnostic safety can be rapidly enhanced by using existing diagnostic safety resources and integrating contemporary recommendations and efforts with available learning modalities in clinical settings. Patient cases obtained from the literature, online sources, and organizations’ data sources can be included in any learning modality and can enhance learning, initiate discussion about diagnostic safety, and promote efforts toward achieving diagnostic safety excellence.
