For this course, you will be reading The Wall of Silence by Gibson and Singh (2003). Please read the book according to the schedule,
reflect upon what you have read, and complete the assignment as described.
The purpose of this reflective assignment is to provide the approach for connecting The Wall of Silence, the course content, and your personal and
professional experiences.
You will complete two reflective journal entries, one for each two sections of the book. Submit each entry by the due date no exceptions. All
entries require the use of APA (see rubric). There is no length requirement for any of the entries however, to earn all potential points you must
demonstrate that you a) have read the book and required readings, b) applied the course material as necessary as demonstrated through
citing/referencing of course materials, and c) reflected on all related components. You should cite and reference the book and all other necessary
materials as evidence of your understanding of course materials.
Entry #1: Based upon Gibson and Singh Part 1 and 2: Breaking the Silence.
Gibson and Singh provided alarming statistics based upon the IOM’s 1999 report of 100,000 deaths per year due to medical errors.
According to Gibson and Singh, this translates to 275 deaths due to medical errors every day. Based on the number of deaths known, and
considering the potential number for unaccounted deaths, reflect on the book and address the following:
1. Describe your level of awareness of the prevalence of medical errors before this course and reading part 1.
2. Part 1 of Gibson and Singh details 10 patient-family accounts and their experience with medical error. Select one of the cases and
discuss the following areas:
a. Provide an overview of the case.
b. Describe in detail your feeling as you read the stories.
c. What type of error occurred in the case?
d. Compare at quality and safety initiatives that now exist that could have prevented the error? (Cite the source where you found the
initiative, guideline or protocol).
e. Why was this case so compelling to you?
4. Discuss our role as nurses in developing a culture of safety interdependent upon a professional code of ethics.
a. Why is it that nurses fail to report errors and what are the consequences to the nurse, patient, facility, and system?
b. How does the nursing shortage affect safety and the potential for errors in the health care system?
c. How frequent and how significant are medication errors in your experience?
d. Describe in detail your experiences in managing, correcting, and documenting medication errors and explain how they affect
your practice?
e. Do you believe quality improvement is really needed? Explain.
f. Support your entry with quotations from the book as needed and with literature and sources from our course. Follow APA
format.
5. It is acceptable to use first person in this entry. Support your entry with quotations from the book as needed and with literature and
sources from our course. Follow APA format.
