Educating future leaders in patient safety

Abstract

Education of health care professionals has given little attention to patient safety, resulting in limited understanding of the nature of risk in health care and the importance of strengthening systems. The World Health Organization developed the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multiprofessional Edition to accelerate the incorporation of patient safety teaching into higher educational curricula. The World Health Organization Curriculum Guide uses a health system-focused, team-dependent approach, which impacts all health care professionals and students learning in an integrated way about how to operate within a culture of safety. The guide is pertinent in the context of global educational reforms and growing recognition of the need to introduce patient safety into health care professionals’ curricula. The guide helps to advance patient safety education worldwide in five ways. First, it addresses the variety of opportunities and contexts in which health care educators teach, and provides practical recommendations to learning. Second, it recommends shared learning by students of different professions, thus enhancing student capacity to work together effectively in multidisciplinary teams. Third, it provides guidance on a range of teaching methods and pedagogical activities to ensure that students understand that patient safety is a practical science teaching them to act in evidence-based ways to reduce patient risk. Fourth, it encourages supportive teaching and learning, emphasizing the need to establishing teaching environments in which students feel comfortable to learn and practice patient safety. Finally, it helps educators incorporate patient safety topics across all areas of clinical practice.

Patient safety: a new basic science for professional education

“…Barriers have been noted to making changes to higher education in general, related to attitudes, existing structures, and resources [ 36 ], [ 37 ]. Published literature suggests that it can also be challenging to introduce patient safety into health professions schools [ 38 ].…”

A Brief Introduction

“…The World Alliance for Patient Safety was launched in 2004; the report Conceptual Framework for the International Classification of Patient Safety was published in 2009; and the two editions of the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide were published in 2009 (specifically for medical schools) and 2011 (for all health professions). For a helpful overview, see "Educating Future Leaders in Patient Safety" (Leotsakos et al 2014).…”

Integrating patient safety education into early medical education utilizing cadaver, sponges, and an inter-professional team

“…Implementing a patient safety curriculum focused on these new competencies can be challenging [ 7 ]. The traditional medical school curriculum has focused on expanding medical knowledge with an emphasis on basic and clinical sciences with less regard for developing the attitudes, skills, and behaviors needed for delivery of high quality safe care [ 8 ].…”

“…One obstacle is finding time in a medical school curriculum that is already densely packed [ 7 , 9 ]. Tsilimingras et al outlined a variety of additional barriers.…”

“…Course directors are reluctant to integrate patient safety science into their courses [ 9 ]. Many are not yet convinced of the importance of this subject in relation to other subjects for students who have yet to master the foundational sciences such as anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry [ 7 , 9 ]. Limited clinical time and decreased opportunities for exposure to common patient safety issues are additional concerns [ 9 ].…”