Do therapists with fewer years of clinical experience encounter more accidents? The relationship between number of years of clinical experience and number of accidents in a year

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine whether therapists experience more accidents annually with increased clinical experience, and whether experiencing an accident in the first year of practice is associated with accidents in the second year of practice. METHODS: We categorized 642 therapists into five groups based on years of clinical experience (first, second, third, fourth, and 5–20 years; n=138, 112, 117, 58, and 217, respectively) and tallied the accidents they reported over an 8-year period. The difference between the five groups in the number of accidents per person per year was subjected to multiple comparisons testing using Kruskal–Wallis tests. RESULTS: Significant differences were revealed between the first year group and the 5–20 years group (p<0.01), between the second year group and the 5–20 years group (p<0.05), and between the third year group and the 5–20 years group (p<0.05). Specifically, participants in the 5–20 years group encountered fewer accidents than those in the other groups. Therapists who encountered an accident in their first year, compared with those who had not, had significantly more accidents in their second year. CONCLUSIONS: Therapists with 1–3 years of clinical experience are more likely to encounter an accident than therapists with >5 years of clinical experience. We conclude that young therapists who have experienced accidents are prone to future accidents. These findings inform the optimal allocation of educational resources to reduce the number of accidents encountered by therapists.