Introduction It is known that the work process in hospital nursing job, when developed under adverse conditions, can result in an increased occurrence of occupational accidents and/or processes of wear.

Objective To monitor nursing workers’ occupational accidents in an university hospital.

Method It is an exploratory study, developed in the hospital of the University of São Paulo, in 2016, after Research Ethics Committee – School of Nursing of the University of São Paulo approval (#1110/2011). Data were extracted from the software SIMOSTE^® – Monitoring System for Nursing Workers’ Health, and studied using descriptive analyses with SPSS^® 20.0.

Results The mean age of the 77 nursing workers that notified occupational accidents is 43.3 years old (S=9.4); 80.5% of them are women. About nursing categories, 67.5% are auxiliary or technicians and 32.5% are nurses (RN). The locations with the highest occurrence of occupational accidents were: Intensive Care Units (24.7%) and emergency service (20.8%). Most of work notifications was typical accidents (77.9%), followed by the disease (11.7%) and route accidents (10.4%). Analysing the occupational accidents according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), it was found greater occurrence of injuries to the wrist and hand – S60-S69 (22.1%); knee and lower leg injuries – S80-S89 (10.4%); and ankle and foot injuries – S90-S99(10.4%). About workloads, the mechanic aspects were involved in 77.9% of occupational accidents, followed by biological (27.3%). In general, the occupational accidents caused 85 days of removal from work.

Conclusions The occupational accidents occurred more frequently in nursing technicians, involving mainly mechanic and biological workloads. Traumas of upper and lower limbs were the most common. The monitoring of occupational accidents can provide subsidies for interventional measures of prevention of diseases and health promotion, and consequently a reduction in absenteeism.