According to Alrasheeday et al. (2025), the global push is to improve patient safety culture because 250,000 patient deaths annually can be attributed to medication errors. In the study by Alrasheeday et al. (2025), the major barriers for reporting medication errors included fear of discipline, blame for the error, and a loss of colleague respect and while the study consisted of nursing students, it is likely these same barriers exist in the general nursing population regardless of experience levels. Similarly the study from Mcclung and Gaberson (2024), found that most nurses will conceal mistakes to avoid punishment or the feeling of being looked down upon by their peers. Mcclung and Gaberson (2024), suggest that in the just culture the expectation is to provide excellent care, not perfect care, because mistakes can happen but that every effort is made to avoid mistakes where possible. Discipline should be viewed as an education opportunity not just for those involved but the team as a whole so that the mistake isn’t made twice without shaming those involved. This can easily be done by leaving names out for huddling the information and keeping the disciplinary action private. All medication errors should be treated the same in a just culture and so both nurses would be disciplined equally regardless of patients being harmed. Not disciplining a correctable action can lead individuals to conceal future errors as long as the patient wasn’t harmed and promote a culture where it is acceptable to not report potentially dangerous situations. So long as the discipline is not such that the individuals feel blamed and that patient safety is the focus, this may prompt others to report events they might not have in the past but it is on leaders and how they approach the disciplinary actions. If an individual feels they are being punished more than another, this will promote a culture that conceals errors because of perceived unfairness, a just culture would provide similar disciplines for similar actions regardless of how patients are affected because the focus should always be about improving patient safety.

Alrasheeday, A. M., Alkubati, S. A., Alqalah, T. A. H., Alrubaiee, G. G., Alshammari, B., Almazan, J. U., Abdullah, S. O., & Loutfy, A. (2025). Nursing students’ perceptions of patient safety culture and barriers to reporting medication errors: A cross-sectional study. NURSE EDUCATION TODAY, 146. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2024.106539

Mcclung, E. L., & Gaberson, K. B. (2024). Confronting punishment of errors with a “Just Culture” environment. Nursing, 54(7), 60–62. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1097/01.NURSE.0001009992.64749.5c