Nurse-perceived patient adverse events and nursing practice environment

To evaluate the occurrence of patient adverse events in Korean hospitals as perceived by nurses and examine the correlation between patient adverse events with the nurse practice environment at nurse and hospital level.

In total, 3096 nurses working in 60 general inpatient hospital units were included. A two-level logistic regression analysis was performed.

At the hospital level, patient adverse events included patient falls (60.5%), nosocomial infections (51.7%), pressure sores (42.6%) and medication errors (33.3%). Among the hospital-level explanatory variables associated with the nursing practice environment, 'physician- nurse relationship' correlated with medication errors while 'education for improving quality of care' affected patient falls.

The doctor-nurse relationship and access to education that can improve the quality of care at the hospital level may help decrease the occurrence of patient adverse events.