174 7.4 Documentation

Critical Incidents and Mandatory Reporting

Critical incident:

• A safety incident caused by an event/circumstance that could have caused/or did harm a resident, visitor, or staff member
• Each home will have policies and incident reporting system that is focused on quality improvement and is typically not punitive

International Classification for resident safety incidents:

• Near Miss
• No Harm Incident
• Harmful Incident
• Resident Safety Incident

Incident management stages:

• Moments prior to the incident occurring
• Immediate response
• Planning the analysis process
• Analysis and investigation
• Implement and evaluate recommended actions
• Communication and sharing^[1][2][3]

Mandatory reporting

• All nurses have a duty to protect patients from harm
• Reporting concerns regarding a fellow health professionals practice may be voluntary or legally mandated and is variable dependent on the nursing regulatory body
• All provinces and territories have mandatory reporting requirements for any criminal offences such as physical abuse and sexual abuse
• In certain jurisdictions, mandatory reporting requirements also includes reporting fellow colleagues for unsafe practice, incapacity, or incompetence
• In certain jurisdictions, the mandatory reporting requirement only include nurses reporting nurses, however, in other jurisdictions nurses are required to report any healthcare provider when a patient is at risk or harmed
• Varying thresholds for what would trigger mandatory reporting exist. In some jurisdictions nurses must report if they have reasonable grounds to suspect misconduct and in others a nurse must have objective evidence of misconduct
• Failure to comply with mandatory reporting requirements may be considered professional misconduct
• There is an opportunity to decrease the variation for mandatory reporting requirements^[4][5][6]