[Punitive written warnings issued by nursing services managers].

This survey aims at analyzing the reasons that generated punitive written warnings from a university hospital of Nursing Services in the period 2001 to 2006 involving different managers. This is an exploratory and descriptive study with quantitative approach. The data were categorized into 4 distinct groups, those being: errors of medicines, disciplinary problems, ethical and technical failures. Among the problems identified 236 disciplinary incidents were the most (46%), the medication errors accounted for 28%, ethical issues and 11% technical failure 11%. There were not statistically significant changes or trends identified over the years or between different departments of nursing. It is suggested it should be studied the interference through the use of appropriate tools to manage the performance of managers.