Between error and success: promoting patient safety based on the reporting of adverse events

Abstract

This documentary, interpretative, qualitative study uses data collected from newspapers from two countries, with the objective of interpreting how news of nursing errors in the media can contribute to the understanding of issues related to patient safety. Hermeneutic analysis was carried out based on Labor Process Theory and the Theory of Communicative Action, with the assistance of Atlas.ti^®software. This resulted in three thematic categories that enabled understanding of problems related to healthcare funding, opportunities to provide society with better understanding of the problem and possibilities of representing and strengthening professional identity. It was concluded that communications media can be an important ally to nursing in the pursuit of better working conditions and by providing visibility to problems themselves and the under-funding of healthcare, as the news enables approximation or distancing, if inserted in the historical, political and social context of those involved.