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. 2007 Jan 23;22(2):205–209. doi: 10.1007/s11606-006-0065-4

Table 1.

Self-Reported Reasons for and Frequency of Suboptimal Care Practices and Errors*

Variable (survey question and response) Mean (SD)
Frequency of engaging in common suboptimal patient care practices
During your most recent inpatient rotation work-week, how often did you...?
Work while impaired by fatigue 3.73 (0.85)
Forget to transmit important information during sign-out 2.13 (0.69)
Report information that you were unsure of 1.92 (0.81)
Write information in a patient’s chart that you were unsure of 1.74 (0.781)
Make up information to report to your superior 1.13 (0.54)
Suboptimal patient care practices summary score* (summary of the previous 5 responses, Eigenvalue = 2.5 ,Cronbach αα = 0.75) 2.16 (0.54)
Reasons for medical errors
How often do you make errors because of...?
Fatigue 3.11 (0.77)
Excessive workload 3.11 (0.84)
Inadequate time 3.04 (0.89)
Distractions 2.77 (0.86)
Stress 2.57 (0.91)
Work stress summary score (summary of the previous 5 responses, eigenvalue = 3.1, Cronbach’s αα = 0.85) 2.92 (0.67)
Inadequate knowledge 2.67 (0.62)
Inadequate supervision 2.12 (0.65)
Intellectual stress summary score (summary of the previous 2 responses, Eigenvalue 1.6, Cronbach αα = 0.60) 2.39 (0.54)
Frequency of medical errors
How often do you make the following errors?
Cognitive 2.67 (0.61)
Administrative 2.34 (0.73)
Technical 1.98 (0.50)
Medical error summary score (summary of the previous 3 responses Cronbach’s αα = 0.60) 2.32 (0.05)

*All items were asked on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often).