Do Nursing Students' Personality Traits Affect Medical Error Attitudes and Tendencies?

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether nursing students’ personality traits affect medical error attitudes and tendencies. This descriptive, cross-sectional, and correlational study was conducted with 343 nursing students enrolled in three universities. Since the rate of malpractice is relatively high in gynecology clinics, participants were expected to have completed or to be currently undertaking an internship in obstetrics and gynecology clinics. Accordingly, the inclusion criteria were defined as being a third- or fourth-year nursing student and volunteering to participate in the study. Data were collected through the "Student Information Form", the "Tendency to Medical Errors Scale in Nursing (TMESN)”, the Five-Factor Personality Scale, and the Scale of Attitudes towards Medical Errors (SATME). Results: In this study 70.8% of the students witnessed a medical error and 9.3% of the participants themselves made medical errors. The SATME total mean score was 2.40±0.45, and the TMESN total mean score was 4.50±0.39. No significant relationship was found between the students’ personality traits and medical error tendencies and medical error attitudes (p>0.05). On the other hand, a weak and positive correlation was found between witnessing medical errors before and medical error tendencies (p<0.05) and a negative, weak, and significant relationship between witnessing medical errors and medical error attitudes (p<0,05). Students’ medical error tendencies were low, and their medical error attitudes were quite negative. It was found that personality traits did not affect medical error attitudes and tendencies. Witnessing a medical error before was the only factor that negatively affected students’ medical error attitudes.