Analysis of human error in nursing care

Analysis of reports about incidental and accidental events in nursing care were made using a reliability engineering method. Unnatural working hours, such as evening duty, night duty falling next to a holiday, two consecutive night-duty shifts, and two consecutive evening-duty shifts were major fact ors in the occurrence of errors. In a mixed-division ward (a ward containin g patients belonging to different divisions), rule-based errors happened mo re frequently than in a single-division ward. Also, less experienced nursin g staffs made errors more frequently than experienced nursing staffs. (C) 1 999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.