Reporting adverse events: Greek doctor and nurse attitudes.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to elicit Greek doctors' and nurses' views about adverse event reporting.

Design/methodology/approach: This is an exploratory study using an adverse events questionnaire administered to 209 doctors and 214 nurses in 14 major Athens universities and tertiary hospitals.

Findings: The paper finds that Greek doctors and nurses prefer a strictly confidential or conditionally confidential reporting scheme. Most doctors favoured disclosing department identity, while a nursing majority argued that it should remain unknown. When asked about the person's professional affiliation that, under a confidential scheme, receives reports and gives feedback, most doctors and nurses preferred the receiver to belong to their profession. Most medical personnel preferred the mandatory model or the discretionary model with a set of guidelines exemplifying adverse event types, while a nurse majority preferred the discretionary with a set of guidelines exemplifying adverse events.

Practical Implications: It is necessary to establish a strictly confidential, non-punitive reporting scheme that supports learning and knowledge and one that is separate from any disciplinary scheme.

Originality/value: The study indicates that culture, legal and patient complaint systems do not affect healthcare professional notions with respect to reporting adverse events.