[Whistleblowing: a difficult concept for nurses].

Preventig errors and implementing risk management systems in health and nursing care requires knowledge about nurses' perceptions of errors, such as their handling and their reporting of errors. Whistleblowing is a way of reporting serious deficits by leaving predetermined pathways and addressing persons, institutions or media outside the organisation. In eighteen semi-structured interviews nurses were asked if they could imagine acting as a whistleblower, or if they even had ever blown the whistle before.