International journal of nursing studies
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Multicenter Study
Frequencies of falls in Swiss hospitals: concordance between nurses' estimates and fall incident reports.
Patient falls are frequent incidents in hospitals, and various measurement methods are described in the literature to assess in-patient fall rates. However, the literature includes no validation of nurses' estimates of fall frequencies, which are the preferred assessment method in multi-centre surveys. ⋯ Nurses' long-term estimates of patient incidents are concordant with continuously and systematically assessed data, and offer valid data where other measurement methods are unavailable.