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This thesis is in two parts. The first is a literature survey in the area of error recovery. The second and major part is the enhancement of an existing parser generator. The enhancement is centred on developing a preprocessor which processes EBNF context-free grammar to generate an intermediate form for input to other software tools involved in this system. The preprocessor and the generated parser have an efficient error recovery technique incorporated into them.

Research suggests that individuals in the workplace might have a difficulty sharing their perceptions of risk and challenging unsafe behaviours. This thesis utilises The Theory of Planned Behaviour to examine which factors promote or hinder healthcare workers’ willingness to speak up and confront clinicians’ risky behaviours that could lead to medical error and hence endanger patient safety. The Theory of Planned Behaviour addresses issues surrounding intentions garnered from explicitly measured variables; in addition the thesis further sought to identify attitudes to speaking up using an implicit measure approach, and an approach using a computerbased, scenario-placement, reaction time methodology. Overall, the results of the thesis’s four studies suggest that nurses’ decisions to speak up are influenced by a variety of negative and positive beliefs. These beliefs include the effect speaking up has on the nurse speaking up and the patient; the support and actions of other nurses and medical personnel; and nurses feelings of confidence, knowledge and experience. Nurses also demonstrated a belief that they are more likely to speak up than their peers. Results also suggested that nurses speak up to individuals that they trust and distrust, indicating that trust and distrust are not polar opposites. The findings suggest that if speaking up is to be promoted practitioners need to address nurses’ negative beliefs—this is especially true with regard to fears about speaking up to authority figures. Nurses stated beliefs that they are more likely to speak up than their peers might be a result of presentation-bias or self-bias, if the cause is self-bias then training nurses to be more assertive and challenge risk might be made more difficult by nurses’ collective denial that they have any difficulties speaking up.

<p>People are always at risk of making errors when they attempt to retrieve information from memory. An important question is how to create the optimal learning conditions so that, over time, the correct information is learned and the number of mistakes declines. Feedback is a powerful tool, both for reinforcing new learning and correcting memory errors. In 5 experiments, I sought to understand the best procedures for administering feedback during learning. First, I evaluated the popular recommendation that feedback is most effective when given immediately, and I showed that this recommendation does not always hold when correcting errors made with educational materials in the classroom. Second, I asked whether immediate feedback is more effective in a particular case—when correcting false memories, or strongly-held errors that may be difficult to notice even when the learner is confronted with the feedback message. Third, I examined whether varying levels of learner motivation might help to explain cross-experimental variability in feedback timing effects: Are unmotivated learners less likely to benefit from corrective feedback, especially when it is administered at a delay? Overall, the results revealed that there is no best “one-size-fits-all” recommendation for administering feedback; the optimal procedure depends on various characteristics of learners and their errors. As a package, the data are consistent with the spacing hypothesis of feedback timing, although this theoretical account does not successfully explain all of the data in the larger literature.</p> / Dissertation

Class of 2017 Abstract / Objectives: To explore the available literature for information on the types of medication errors committed in community pharmacies, the rate of occurrence, and potential causation of those errors. Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed for articles dating from 1995-present concerning medication errors committed in community pharmacies. A total of eight studies were used in the evaluation. Results: Error types identified in the literature include content errors, labeling errors, near errors, clinically significant errors, and any other deviation from the prescriber's original order. Each study had its own individual error rate. Combining all studies reviewed, the overall average error rate was 2.2% (516 errors out of 23,455 prescriptions total). Proposed causation of medication dispensing errors include low lighting levels, high sound levels, the use of manual prescription inspection alone, pharmacy design, problems with efficiency, the use of drive through pick up windows, errors in communication, high prescription volume, high pharmacist workload, inadequate pharmacy staffing, and the use of dispensing software programs that provide alerts and clinical information. Conclusions: The available literature proposes that medication-dispensing errors in community pharmacies continue to be a frequent issue. Error types include content, labeling, clinically significant, near errors, and any other deviation from the prescriber's original order. Of the observed errors, labeling was most frequent. The data indicated low lighting, amplified noise, and sociotechnical factors could contribute to error frequency. Future studies are required to focus on other potential causes of dispensing errors and how to minimize rate of occurrence.

A Research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Bioethics and Health Law. Johannesburg, 2017 / Medical errors that occur in public sector hospitals should be discussed with patients and notified to specific structures to improve systems and patient safety. To elucidate barriers to doctors reporting errors and to establish correct ethical requirements, a mixed methods approach was used. A normative literature-based analysis was done to determine the correct ethical processes taking into account South African legislation. In addition a questionnaire-based internet survey (using REDCap) was conducted at the School of Clinical Medicine (SOCM) at the University of the Witwatersrand which examined the current situation and attitudes towards medical error disclosure. There were 211 clinicians who completed the survey. Public sector hospital staff shortages and patient overloads (96%) as well as poor record-keeping systems (89%) were identified as important reasons for errors. Fears of victimization by colleagues (59%) and medico-legal consequence (56%) were prominent as reasons not to disclose medical errors. Poor reporting systems available to doctors (66%) and insufficient support from senior staff made it difficult for doctors to report errors. Training on correct disclosing of errors to patients and family was seen as necessary to improve skills and facilitate effective disclosure (94%). There was general agreement that doctors 'ought to' disclose harmful medical errors (83%) and to a lesser degree 'potentially harmful' errors to patients (70%). Ethical guidelines that are appropriate for South Africa are suggested, as well as the introduction of easier reporting systems. For disclosure, a safe environment that protects against victimization and medico-legal prosecution is important and legislation to support this is urgently required. Training for doctors in correct methods for adequate disclosure and apology will assist improving patient care. / MT2017

Chow, Chi Wang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [81]-84). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.

The Phonic Inventories are a three level spelling test which was developed to enable identification of the patterns of spelling error made by children, as an aid for teachers and therapists. The aim of this study is to test the assumptions of face validity, content validity, construct validity and discriminant validity of the Phonic Inventories, as well as their short and long-term reliability. This has been done by using both longitudinal and cross-sectional datasets from 1979 and 2001. The results of the study indicate that the three levels of the instrument are reliable, and that they have potential for clinical as well as classroom use in determining which alphabetic rules learners have or have not acquired. They also have potential for use by teachers for screening purposes, with the aim of identifying learners experiencing difficulties in learning the rule systems used in reading and writing.