Reporting adverse events in a hospital environment from the perspective of nursing professionals

Abstract

Objective: to understand how adverse events are reported from the point of view of nursing professionals. Methods: a qualitative study was carried out with 38 nursing professionals. Data was collected using an electronic form of personal and professional characterization and guiding questions. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the characterization data and thematic content analysis was used for the qualitative data. Results: 21 nurses and 17 nursing technicians participated, most young women from hospitals in four Brazilian states. Two categories emerged: Notification of adverse events, one more task to be carried out in daily work, and Notification and institutional treatment of adverse events, from a personal approach to a procedural one, with subcategories. Conclusion: notifications focus on filling in the institutional instrument, and there is a lack of clarity about what adverse events are. A punitive culture persists, but there seems to be a movement towards a procedural approach. Contribution to practice: we hope to help raise awareness of the issue and help institutions develop more effective reporting strategies to monitor patient safety and drive improvements.

Keywords

• patient safety; risk management; hospital units; notification; nursing.