[Professional error and nursing ethics: from past consideration to future strategy]. / Errore professionale e deontologia infermieristica: dalla storia alla programmazione futura.

ABSTRACT

In 1960, the National Federation IPASVI emanated its first ethical code which does not deal at all with the prevention of error or how to behave in the case this does happen, with the exception of point 6, which recommends scrupulously respecting the therapy prescribed and encouraging patients to trust the physicians and the other health workers. The second ethical code was dated 1977. In this eighteen year interval the hospital organization had been deeply modified and this new layout of the Code reflected some remarkable changes of thought but no precise reference to the matter of error management. In the 1999 version of the code the radical changes in the profession are reflected and formally recognized by the law (42/1999) and by society acting as a reference for the regulation of the nursing profession and referring to one of the most ancient principles of medicine, the "primum non nocere". It is important to remember that an ethical code derives from professional considerations, applied to the context of "here and now". Some strategic considerations for the future regarding the important role of risk prevention and management of errors (which do, unfortunately, occur) are therefore expressed.