MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs
June 2022
Purpose: To describe experiences of women disclosing a nonlethal fetal anomaly diagnosis to family and friends from initial prenatal diagnosis through postpartum.
Study Design And Methods: A descriptive, qualitative approach was used to explore women's perceptions of nonlethal fetal anomaly diagnosis in a high-risk obstetric clinic. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 pregnant women, followed by postpartum interviews with 8 women.
Normalization of deviance is a phenomenon demonstrated by the gradual reduction of safety standards to a new normal after a period of absence from negative outcomes, which suggests that the absence of negative outcomes tends to reinforce the behaviors associated with cutting corners, bypassing safety checklists, and ignoring alarms. While the concept was first identified within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, it has a strong, dangerous presence within health care, holding specific peril within high-risk environments such as the operating room. The aims of this article are to (1) analyze the concept of normalization of deviance and (2) identify the role of normalization of deviance with respect to the behavior of nurses in high-risk health care environments to prevent adverse patient outcomes.
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