The introduction of hospital policies and the development of structured protocols on drug administration may decrease medication errors. The hospital administration system needs to stress the importance of reporting errors and adopt a non-punitive approach to safeguard patient safety. Other preventive strategies include increasing staff, avoiding distraction from patients and coworkers when medications are administered, and introducing regular education sessions in pharmacology and numeracy.

This article emphasises the main strategies that can be used to respond to ethical challenges when researching with a small easily identifiable group. The learning discussed here may be relevant to or even transferable to other similar research studies or research contexts. These methods fostered a greater credibility throughout the research process and predisposed the participants to greater trust, and thus, they disclosed their experiences and speak more freely, thus enhancing the quality of the study.

The introduction of hospital policies and the development of structured protocols on drug administration may decrease medication errors. The hospital administration system needs to stress the importance of reporting errors and adopt a non-punitive approach to safeguard patient safety. Other preventive strategies include increasing staff, avoiding distraction from patients and coworkers when medications are administered, and introducing regular education sessions in pharmacology and numeracy.

To reduce maternal mortality, it is important to analyze the clinical conditions posing a potential threat to pregnant women. To characterize such states, the definition was introduced – “maternal morbidity, which almost took the woman’s life” (the near miss maternal morbidity), or the “near miss”. The “near miss” criteria were first defined in 2009. This review article provides a rationale for auditing the “near miss” cases for the purposes of healthcare technologies asessment. The paper also discusses the clinical and economic aspects of “near miss” analysis and the methodology for assessing the “near miss” incidence. Also of scientific and practical interest is the classification of maternal “near miss” cases developed by our colleagues from theRostovPerinatalCenter. Thus, maternal “near miss” cases are divided into obstetric (emergency), extragenital, planned (managed), organizational, and iatrogenic. This differentiated approach to the maternal critical conditions allows us to understand not only their causes, but also to develop a plan of further actions for each specific group. This contributes to the development of rehabilitation and prevention measures to be taken during subsequent pregnancies.

Healthcare organisations should create an appropriate working environment that supports practice development nurses and clearly distinguishes their responsibilities and authority. Practice development nurses should become more socio-economically and politically focused to enable them to function strategically and effectively in their clinical working environment.