BackgroundPatient safety training of healthcare professionals is a new area of education. Assessment of the pertinent competencies should be a part of this education. This review aims to identify the available assessment tools for different patient safety domains and evaluate them according to Miller's four competency levels.MethodsThe authors searched PubMed, MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Web of Science, psycINFO and the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) from the start of each database to December 2010 for English-language articles that evaluated or described tools for the assessment of the safety competencies of individual medical and/or nursing professionals. Reports on the assessment of technical, clinical, medication and disclosure skills were excluded.ResultsThirty-four assessment tools in 48 studies were identified: 20 tools for medical professionals, nine tools for nursing professionals, and five tools for both medical and nursing professionals. Twenty of these tools assessed the two highest Miller levels (‘shows how’ and ‘does’) and four tools were directed at multiple levels. Most of the tools that aimed at the higher levels assessed the skills of working in teams (17 tools), risk management (15 tools), and communication (11 tools). Internal structure (reliability, 22 tools) and content validity (14 tools) when described were found to be moderate. Only a small number of tools addressed the relationship between the tool itself and (1) other assessments (concurrent, predictive validity, eight tools), and (2) educational outcomes (seven tools).ConclusionsThere are many tools designed to assess the safety competencies of healthcare professionals. However, a reliable and valid toolbox for summative testing that covers all patient safety domains at Miller's four competency levels cannot yet be constructed. Many tools, however, are useful for formative feedback.
Residents have useful suggestions to resolve the barriers that prevent them from reporting incidents. They include solutions that influence attitude, culture and perceived ability. These suggestions should be considered when making an effort to improve incident reporting by residents.
The SCS is potentially useful to measure surgical residents' perceptions of the patient safety climate in Dutch teaching hospitals. There is considerable room for improvement of the patient safety climate. Surgical training should include better feedback, formal patient safety teaching sessions at the workplace and specific attention to patient safety during the introduction in a new hospital, and supervisors should encourage surgical residents to report any patient safety concern they may have.
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