Patient safety in Intensive Care Units: development of a research project

To describe our experience in the many processes involved in the development of a Project on Research into Intensive Care Unit Patient Safety.

Mixed design study: historic cohort study of the collection of data on patients and on adverse events/incidents and transversal design on the collection of data on a nursing team. The data were collected over a period of 90 days in 2012 at the Instituto Central do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina of the Universidade de São Paulo (ICHC-FMUSP)and the University Hospital of the Universidade de São Paulo HU-USP).Procedures carried out: This study involved a number of stages: application of the Nursing Activities Score (NAS) at the ICHC-FMUSP, creation of a database system, hospital record inputs, monitor training, patient data extraction and load, collection of data during duty shift changes, and records. Final considerations : Training, researcher commitment, and collaboration with IT (Information Technology) professionals were crucial to the quality of the results obtained and of scientific production achieved. We hope that our report will serve to guide and encourage researchers to carry out complex surveys contributing to improve nursing and health knowledge.