Preventing Recurrence: Learning From Incidents and Medical Errors

What you will learn

• Explain why the risk of recurrence is central to how patients, facilities, committees and licensing authorities in the UAE respond to incidents and medical errors.
• Identify the provisions of UAE law and regulator standards that treat repetition more seriously or are aimed at preventing it, including ECR 49/2024 Arts 19, 21 and 23 and CR 176/2025 Art. 11.
• Describe the incident reporting, sentinel event and RCA timelines in the DOH Incident Reporting and Management Standard V2 and DHA ST-53, and the professional's role as witness and action owner.
• Classify a failure as a slip, lapse, mistake, violation or competence gap, and select safeguards that fit each type.
• Apply timelines, the five whys, fishbone diagrams, barrier analysis and change analysis, and recognise hindsight bias, outcome bias and premature attribution to human error.
• Rank corrective actions as strong, intermediate or weak, and write actions that are linked to causes, owned, dated and measurable.
• Choose process, outcome and balancing measures and use simple audits to show whether change is sustained.
• Write an honest contribution statement and a personal recurrence prevention plan with safeguards that work under pressure.
• Assemble independent, cause-linked evidence that the risk of repetition has fallen, and recognise the red flags that suggest it has not.
• Plan to sustain safeguards through drift, transitions between facilities and emirates, near-miss learning and CPD.

Syllabus

10 sections, about 2 learning hours, 20-question final assessment

1. 1Recurrence: the forward-looking question in UAE practice3 lessons

   • From "what happened" to "will it happen again"
   • Where recurrence appears in UAE law and standards
   • Facility learning systems and personal learning
2. 2Why it happened: classifying the failure3 lessons

   • Slips, lapses, mistakes, violations and gaps
   • Contributory factors in UAE healthcare settings
   • Isolated event, repeat or pattern
3. 3Root cause analysis in practice3 lessons

   • Living through a root cause analysis under DOH and DHA rules
   • Tools for finding the causes
   • Traps that lead to the wrong conclusions
4. 4Choosing actions that actually prevent recurrence3 lessons

   • The action hierarchy: strong, intermediate and weak actions
   • Writing a corrective action plan that holds
   • Measuring whether actions work
5. 5Your personal recurrence prevention plan3 lessons

   • Mapping your own part honestly
   • Personal safeguards that hold under pressure
   • Prevention by type of concern
6. 6Showing that the risk of repetition is low3 lessons

   • What decision-makers need to see about future risk
   • Building evidence that the risk has fallen
   • Red flags that the risk remains
7. 7Keeping safeguards alive across a UAE career3 lessons

   • Drift: why safeguards decay
   • High-risk transitions: new roles, facilities and emirates
   • Learning from near misses and sharing what you learn
8. 8Conclusion and key points1 lesson

   • Conclusion and key points
9. 9References and further reading1 lesson

   • References and further reading
10. 10Your reflective account1 lesson

    • Your reflective account

Course facts

CPD value

Approximately 2 learning hours (self-directed CPD, including knowledge checks, reflection and assessment)

Audience

Licensed healthcare professionals in the UAE (physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and allied health professionals) licensed by MOHAP, DHA, DOH, SHA or DHCC/DHCR, in government and private settings, including those involved in an incident, root cause analysis, complaint or remedial process

Standards covered

Federal Decree-Law No. (4) of 2016 on Medical Liability (Arts 4, 6, 17, 18, 23, 35, 37) and Cabinet Resolution No. (40) of 2019 (Arts 2, 3, 5); Federal Law No. (5) of 2019 and Cabinet Resolution No. (67) of 2020 (Art. 7.2); Federal Law No. (6) of 2023 and Cabinet Resolution No. (176) of 2025 (Art. 11); Ministerial Resolution No. (14) of 2021 (Patient's Charter); Dubai Executive Council Resolution No. (49) of 2024 (Arts 19, 21, 22, 23; Schedule 4); DHA Standards for Sentinel Events Notification and Management in Health Facilities (ST-53, v1.1 2025); DHA Standards for Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (ST-66, 2025); DOH Incident Reporting and Management Standard V2 (2024); DOH Standard on Reporting Medication Errors (2019)

Format

Self-paced, gated lessons with knowledge checks, UAE case studies and reflection

Assessment

20 scenario-based questions, 80% to pass (16 of 20)

Outcome

Certificate of completion and a written reflection for your professional development portfolio

Alignment

Supports DOH Incident Reporting and Management Standard V2 (just culture, incident reporting, RCA and corrective action), DHA ST-53 (sentinel event RCA and action plans) and DHA Code of Ethics ST-66 (candour, remedial action, CPD); relevant to remedial measures under Dubai ECR 49/2024 Art. 19(c) and licence conditions under Cabinet Resolution No. (176) of 2025 Art. 11

Price

AED 349

Who this course is for

Clinicians involved in an incident, root cause analysis, complaint or remedial process, licensed by MOHAP, DHA, DOH, SHA or DHCR.

Written for professionals licensed by any UAE authority: MOHAP, DHA, DOH, SHA or DHCR. Where the rules differ, the course explains the difference.