Trends in residents’ factual descriptions six months after refresher training in writing medical incident reports

Abstract

Many free descriptions in medical incident reports lack factual information. In a previous study, I conducted initial training and refresher training with residents to accurately describe facts. In this study, I compared 23 actual incident reports submitted by residents after initial training, 80 reports 6 months after initial training, 21 reports after refresher training, and 18 reports 6 months after refresher training to verify whether their writing skills were retained. As a result, the description rate of patients and that of medicine and equipment information was significantly highest 6 months after refresher training. Reporter’s action, post-incident response, and original work procedures also maintained a high description rate in incident reports 6 months after refresher training. For these categories, refresher training boosted residents’ writing skills, and the effect persisted 6 months later. For environment, team member's actions, and safety check procedures, the description rate significantly decreased 6 months after initial training, but gradually recovered after refresher training. However, the description rate after 6 months of refresher training is still not high. Further improvement of refresher training is considered necessary for these categories.