According to the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, one in 10 hospital patients suffers some accidental harm (British Journal of Nursing, 2002). Your immediate response to the incident is important. Clearly the priority is to ensure that anyone who is actually hurt receives prompt attention for their injuries. Green (2001) notes some confusion regarding how to respond when an incident occurs. Where an incident occurs that may lead to a claim against a nurse, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) (2009) advises:
Remember that you should never admit liability for an incident or submit any written statement about it until you have taken advice from the RCN.
It is likely that other professional indemnity schemes will contain similar advice. This advice is contrary to the stated aims for the management of clinical risk in the NHS (Green, 2001). One of these aims is for staff to be able to listen, apologise
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