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Open research questions in Patient Safety and Medication Errors

372 gap statements mined from Patient Safety and Medication Errors papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,512 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The study notes that the analysis of brand names is challenging due to the complexity of the designations and the need for a systematic qualitative evaluation. The study also notes that the use of evaluative terms within brand names can be confusing and lead to medication errors. The study identifies the challenge of distinguishing between coherent and incoherent designations.

    Systematic qualitative analysis of the designation of medicinal products in the Rote Liste® (Red List) · 2026 · DOI

  • Time was identified as a principal barrier to the implementation of clinical debriefing, with competing priorities and unpredictable workflow in the emergency department. The study found that debriefing needed to occur proximate to the event, yet be balanced against immediate service pressures. The implementation of clinical debriefing required flexibility and adaptation to overcome these challenges.

    Implementation and Performance of a Clinical Debriefing Programme in a Paediatric Emergency Department: A Descriptive Qualitative Review · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of evidence describing how clinical debriefing programmes are implemented, experienced, and sustained in emergency departments. The existing literature has largely focused on describing debriefing frameworks, with comparatively few studies examining the mechanisms through which debriefing becomes embedded in routine practice.

    Implementation and Performance of a Clinical Debriefing Programme in a Paediatric Emergency Department: A Descriptive Qualitative Review · 2026 · DOI

  • Current incident investigation approaches often rely on root cause analysis; however, its routine use as a universal method is insufficient to address the highly variable, cognitive, sociotechnical and multifactorial nature of histopathology errors.

    Beyond root cause analysis: a practical systems engineering approach to incident investigation in histopathology · 2026 · DOI

  • A key limitation of current practice is the lack of proportionality, where similar methods are applied irrespective of case complexity.

    Beyond root cause analysis: a practical systems engineering approach to incident investigation in histopathology · 2026 · DOI

  • However, the influence of ethical competence on the perception of open disclosure and the role of organizational silence remain unclear.

    Organizational Silence as a Mediator Between Ethical Nursing Competence and Perceptions of Open Disclosure in Patient Safety Incidents · 2026 · DOI

  • Changes in the patient safety culture in hospitals can increase error disclosure, but the relationship between these factors remains unclear.

    The Relationship Between Barriers to Medical Error Disclosure and Patient Safety Culture: A Cross‐Sectional Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of targeted interventions to mitigate these challenges.

    Identification of the Relationship Between Health Professionals’ Managerial Attitudes and Distractions in the Operating Room: A Mixed Design Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Patient safety competency among nurses is increasingly emphasized, yet research on patient safety competency among psychiatric nurses remains scarce.

    Perceptions and Enhancement Needs of Psychiatric Nurses on Patient Safety Competency: A Phenomenological Study · 2026 · DOI

  • However, the facilitators and barriers that influence this process remain unclear.

    Barriers and Facilitators for Medication Safety in Emergency Care Using a SEIPS Model: A Qualitative Study · 2026 · DOI

  • While job-related stress is assumed to influence safety outcomes, the mediating role of patient safety culture (PSC) remains unclear, especially in resource-limited healthcare systems.

    Job Stress Does Not Predict Safety Outcomes But Safety Culture Does: Insights From Emergency Nurses in Iran · 2026 · DOI

  • Although leadership has been widely studied during the pandemic, little is known about how first-line ICU managers experienced their work supporting staff and shaping organisational and relational preconditions for patient safety.

    First Line Managers’ Experiences of Shaping Organisational and Relational Preconditions for Patient Safety in Swedish Intensive Care Units During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study · 2026 · DOI

  • Perioperative nurses are critical to the SSC's successful implementation, but their experiences and the obstacles they encounter are underexplored under specific organizational systems.

    Surgical Safety Checklist Implementation in a Tunisian University Hospital: A Mixed‐Methods Study of Compliance and Nurses’ Perspectives on Barriers, Facilitators, and Sustainability · 2026 · DOI

  • The surgical safety checklist (SSC) is a valuable tool for promoting patient safety, but its implementation is complex and understudied, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

    Surgical Safety Checklist Implementation in a Tunisian University Hospital: A Mixed‐Methods Study of Compliance and Nurses’ Perspectives on Barriers, Facilitators, and Sustainability · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should focus on longitudinal studies, multicultural and gender-diverse designs, mixed-methods research on high-risk groups, and exploring interactions among influencing factors to improve support for second victims and enhance nursing quality and patient safety.

    Factors Influencing Nurses' Experiences and Support as Second Victims Following Adverse Events: A Scoping Review · 2026 · DOI

  • A common barrier was insufficient processes to proactively identify clinical deterioration.

    Patient and clinician perspectives of high-reliability organizing in practice: A qualitative study of cancer teams · 2026 · DOI

  • Although individual cases of incorrect routes of drug administration (IRDA) in children and adolescents have been described in the literature, a systematic analysis of a larger number of cases is lacking.

    Unintentional Incorrect Route of Drug Administration: An Analysis of Spontaneous Reports of Medication Errors in Children and Adolescents from Germany · 2026 · DOI

  • Audit‐based implementation of professional safety standards has been proposed to improve safety climate and reduce errors, but its effectiveness has not been fully established.

    Impact of Audit‐Based Implementation of Professional Safety Standards on Safety Climate and Nursing Errors in Emergency Departments: A Quasi‐Experimental Study · 2026 · DOI

  • This practice is time-consuming, introduces repeated interruptions into the care process and lacks evidence of effectiveness.

    Double-checking in the safe administration of medicines: Policy and practice in English hospitals · 2026 · DOI

  • Although it was widely acknowledged that safety culture and error culture management improved patient safety, little is known about how these elements affected nurses' working environments and error occurrence.

    The mediating role of the work environment between error culture management and clinical errors: A cross-sectional multicentre study · 2026 · DOI

  • Proactive huddles aim to enhance communication, coordination, and early risk identification, yet the mediating role of safety climate remains unclear.

    From talk to action: A randomized controlled design on the role of huddles in shaping safety climate and reducing missed nursing care · 2026 · DOI

  • Although prior research has examined individual and environmental determinants, few studies have investigated their complex interrelationships within an integrated theoretical framework, particularly in clinical nursing practice.

    Structural Model of Medication Errors in Clinical Nursing: A Structural Equation Model Based on the Ecological Systems Theory · 2026 · DOI

  • While low-harm events represent the majority of submissions, they are rarely examined systematically due to the time and resources required to manually review the complex, lengthy, narrative data.

    AI-driven analysis of patient safety reports using large language models: an exploratory multiple methods study · 2026 · DOI

  • While pediatric-focused interventions have addressed dosing errors, few studies have explored strategies to reduce MAEs in prehospital settings.

    Medication administration errors in a Norwegian ambulance service: a quasi-experimental study on the impact of a team training program · 2026 · DOI

  • The analysis was limited to the Rote Liste dataset from 2020, - The study did not evaluate the actual occurrence of medication errors, - The study relied on a newly established…

    Systematic qualitative analysis of the designation of medicinal products in the Rote Liste® (Red List) · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Patient Safety and Medication Errors

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) There is a lack of evidence describing how clinical debriefing programmes are implemented, experienced, and sustained in emergency departments (“Implementation and Performance of a Clinical Debriefing Programme in a…”, 2026); (2) The influence of ethical competence on the perception of open disclosure and the role of organizational silence remain unclear (“Organizational Silence as a Mediator Between Ethical Nursing Competence and…”, 2026); (3) Changes in the patient safety culture in hospitals can increase error disclosure, but the relationship between these factors remains unclear (“The Relationship Between Barriers to Medical Error Disclosure and Patient…”, 2026); (4) Future research should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of targeted interventions to mitigate these challenges (“Identification of the Relationship Between Health Professionals’ Managerial…”, 2026); (5) Patient safety competency among nurses is increasingly emphasized, yet research on patient safety competency among psychiatric nurses remains scarce (“Perceptions and Enhancement Needs of Psychiatric Nurses on Patient Safety…”, 2026). 372 gap statements have been mined from Patient Safety and Medication Errors papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,512 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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