Assessment of the Malpractice Tendencies of Nurses Working in an Educational and Research Hospital

Healthcare institutions have complex structures as they provide service for a patient group with various profiles, including members of a profession with different education levels. Institutional and individual error risks are present within this complex structure. Therefore, in order to minimize errors while providing care taking precautions and determining the factors that caused malpractice are very important subjects. The aim of this study is to determine the malpractice fields that nurses are tend to and the factors that caused malpractice. This study was conducted in an education and research hospital in September 2010-November 2010 with 115 nurses. An "Introductory Information Form" and "Malpractice Trend Scale in Nursing" were used in order to determine error areas as data gathering tools. Education levels of nurses and number of years in the occupation didn't create any significant difference on the tendency of nurses to malpractice. However, it was evaluated that the nurses working in internal medical clinics are less tend to error than the nurses working in surgical clinics.