We conducted a survey to investigate whether nurses had difficulties in activating the rapid response system (RRS) and to explore the factors affecting its activation. We found that 80% of the 381 nurses experienced difficulties with RRS activation. Three factors were found to account for these difficulties: (1) “the heavy responsibility of activating the RRS” (56%), (2) “not knowing the right timing to activate the RRS” (41%), and (3) “lack of confidence in one’s ability to determine whether something is wrong with a patient” (this is one of the RRS activation standards) (40%).