According to the state Department of Labor, 2,500 educational and health services jobs were added on Long Island in the 12-month period ended in December. That’s while the trade, transportation and utilities sector lost 6,700 jobs in the same period and the professional and business-services sector shed 4,700 positions.

What’s more, continued growth in health care is projected, said Gary Huth, the department’s principal economist. Overall job growth on Long Island for the period 2006 to 2016 is projected to be 6.7 percent for all occupations, he said. Make that 14.1 percent for health care practitioner and technician jobs.

Among the jobs for which demand is expected to grow the most for that period: home health aides, up 42 percent; medical assistants, up 30.2 percent; pharmacy technicians, up 19.8 percent; nursing aides, orderlies, up 16.3 percent; and medical records, health information technicians, up 13 percent. (www.newsday.com)

Several days later, a reader, Mike Stegeman, sent me an email bringing this mistake to my attention. I have since corrected the post, but kept my original mistake posted (just crossed through Elton John’s name). There is a greater lesson to be learned by us all from this occurrence.

While this mistake was not life-endangering, as are many medication errors, it is natural to want to fix our mistakes and try to move forward without bringing any extra attention to them. In healthcare, however, I believe that when mistakes are made we must not only correct them, but they should be discussed openly in an effort to prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future. We can not learn from mistakes that are hidden or covered up, so let’s admit to our errors, correct them as soon as possible, and then be open about our mistakes so that others can learn. Providing proper credit to Billy Joel is important, but discussing errors made in healthcare settings (no matter how insignificant they may seem) could help prevent future medication errors from happening.

My apologies to Mr. Joel and thanks to Mr. Stegeman.

I believe we are in serious need of assessing our educational models and learning theories, especially in environments that do not include simulation for positive debriefing and high fidelity feedback. If students are graduating and moving into practice settings without the ability to identify, analyze and correct their mistakes…medical errors will continue to increase in prevalence.