Abstract
We analyzed the incident reports filed by nurses at Hokkaido University Hospital over the 7-year period from 2002 to 2009. During this period, a total of 12,798 incident reports were filed. A dramatic increase of 33% was observed in 2007 compared to data from 2006. In 2007, to achieve a target of 7 patients per nurse, the number of nurses increased by 22% compared to the total in 2006 following the hiring of 140 nurses (most of whom were recent graduates of nursing school). The number of incident reports filed by recent graduates was high in 2007. Although recent graduates filed 2 to 3 times more reports than nurses with 2 or more years of experience, the average number of incident reports per nurse did not increase significantly. The increase in the number of nurses did not lead to the decrease in the number of incident reports. Medicine administration was the most frequent incident category among recent graduates of all incident reports they filed. Among medicine administration-related incident reports, errors in the speed of drip infusion via peripheral veins were the most common among recent graduates and 2 or 3 years-careers. Clarification of recent graduates' incident reports provides important and useful data for educating nurses about patient safety.
