Abstract
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare adopted present medical safety policy ten years ago. This policy mandated hospitals to develop an in-house system for medical safety management, and appoint a medical safety manager. In this paper, I will show the difference between the performances of nurses as medical safety managers and of doctors in the same role by analyzing the results of a nationwide survey that I conducted in 2007; this survey involved medical safety managers working in hospitals that were accredited for medical safety by the Japan Council for Quality Health Care. Furthermore, I will focus on the problems that nurses as medical managers considered to be significantly more difficult as compared to doctors, and determine the reasons behind this tendency. The study revealed the following tendencies of nurses in the above role: first, nurses as medical safety managers usually found it difficult to maintain cordial relationships with other medical staff members. Second, they found it difficult to compile and analyze incident and accident reports. Third, they underestimated the doctors' awareness about medical safety. Fourth, they believed that the primary problem in medical safety management was the medical staff's low awareness about medical safety. Fifth, they tended to point out the inadequacy of informed consent as one of the chief causes of malpractice suits. I believe that the above tendencies might reflect the work attitudes of nurses in hospitals and the professional perspectives of nurses with regard to other medical staff members and patients. In order to promote medical safety management and patient care, it is essential for hospital and medical staff members to identify the difficulties encountered by nurses as medical safety managers.
