Ooops
Being an editor, I am well acquainted with error. Unlike medical errors, the effects of my slips and lapses are rarely dangerous. In fact, they’re often humorous, occasionally useful.
Recently, I received the following message from Becca Price via Twitter:
We’re laughing at the word “infallibility” in Tribble’s Building a Culture of Safety article. Freudian? Or are we confused?
Here’s the incorrect, perhaps Freudian use of “infallibility” in context, toward the end of Dennis Tribble’s column in the May/June issue of PSQH:
Mark Neuenschwander, of the unSummit, notes the requirement for healthcare providers to each individually realize their infallibility. He describes a nurse’s story…
Of course, that should read, “individually recognize their fallibility.” Becca and her colleagues were kind enough to let me know gently that I’d committed a classic goof. It’s all too easy to make mistakes, even — perhaps especially — when writing about them.
As editor and proofreader-in-chief, it’s my job to catch slips of this kind, and I apologize to Dennis for having missed this one. Clearly my systems are not mistake-proof, not high-reliability. This one slipped through the Swiss cheese. I’m chagrined, but welcome the reminder and the opportunity to point out again that none of us is infallible.