To explore the method of identifying nursing-related patient safety events, types, contributing factors and evaluate consequences of these events in hospitals of China, incident report program was established and implemented in 15 patient units in two teaching hospitals of China to get the relevant information. Among 2935 hospitalized patients, 141 nursing-related patient safety events were reported by nurses. Theses events were categorized into 15 types. Various factors contributed to the events and the consequence varied from no harm to patient death. Most of the events were preventable. It is concluded that incident reporting can provide more information about patient safety, and establishment of a program of voluntary incident reporting in hospitals of China is not only urgent but also feasible.