More than 90 percent of nurses surveyed said they have been involved, or nearly involved, in cases of medical malpractice, according to an interim report by a nationwide medical union released Wednesday.

The 174,000-member Japan Federation of Medical Workers Unions stated in a report based on the survey that 93.9 percent of nurses polled admitted to inadvertent involvement, or near-involvement in cases of malpractice, such as providing patients with the wrong injection or medication.

The survey was conducted between August and October and covered some 100,000 members of the federation, which accounts for about 10 percent of all registered nurses nationwide. The interim report covers only 12,000 of those 100,000.

Regarding malpractice, 58.1 percent of nurses said they have given or nearly given the wrong injection to patients, while 55.2 percent said they gave or almost gave the wrong medication.

Giving erroneous reports or instructions about patients to other nurses accounted for 28.3 percent of cases, while mistakes related to medical examinations accounted for 15.6 percent and mistakes in operating medical equipment accounted for 12 percent. Respondents were allowed to give three examples of malpractice cases in which they were involved.

Asked for reasons to account for cases of malpractice, 84.6 percent said excessive workload, 42 percent said exhaustion caused by rotating shift-work, and 37.9 percent said lack of medical knowledge and technical experience. Respondents were also allowed to give three reasons for their involvement in malpractice cases .

Asked whether they are offering sufficient nursing care to patients, 56.6 percent said they are unable to offer such care.

Many respondents blamed this on a shortage of staff and too many other work requirements, according to the interim report.

The federation said that the situation is so serious that medical institutions should take systematic measures to prevent more malpractice cases, warning against the current trend in which each malpractice case is likely to be attributed to individual medical workers.

A final report will be compiled by April, according to the federation.