Patient-led training on patient safety: A pilot study to test the feasibility and acceptability of an educational intervention

Abstract

Background: Training in patient safety is an important element of medical education. Most educational interventions on patient safety training adopt a 'health-professional lens' with limited consideration on the impact of safety lapses on the patient and their families and little or no involvement of patients in the design or delivery of the training. Aims: This paper describes a pilot study to test the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a patient-led educational intervention to facilitate safety training amongst newly qualified doctors. Method: Patients and/or carers who had experienced harm during their care shared narratives of their stories with trainees; this was followed by a focused discussion on patient safety issues exploring the causes and consequences of safety incidents and lessons to be learned from these. Results: The intervention, which will be further tested in an NIHR-funded randomised controlled trial (RCT), was successfully implemented into an existing training programme and found acceptance amongst the patients and trainees. Conclusion: The pilot study proved to be a useful step in refining the intervention for the RCT including identifying appropriate outcome measures and highlighting organisational issues.

Effects of My Child's Safety Web-Based Program for Caregivers of Children with Cancer in South Korea

“…However, patients who have received Web-based educational intervention reported better outcomes than patients who received traditional education, such as face-to-face sessions [24]. Patient-centered patient safety intervention has not been widely studied, but one study on patient safety intervention among patients reported the feasibility and acceptability of face-to-face intervention [25]. Considering the effectiveness of Web-based interventions in previous patient education, utilizing an online program will provide more promising results.…”

“…The importance of patients' contributions to their safety and the prevention of errors [25] has been emphasized for more than a decade in other advanced countries. For example, there have been many initiatives in patient safety and regarding patients as partners for patient safety outside of Korea.…”

Patients as teachers: a randomised controlled trial on the use of personal stories of harm to raise awareness of patient safety for doctors in training

“…The full details of the intervention were published previously 28 29. Patient and carers, recruited from the National Patient Safety Agency, Action for Victims of Medical Accidents and advertisements in the local press, were included if they had experience of suffering harm or error to themselves or their families during healthcare.…”

“…Patient and carers, recruited from the National Patient Safety Agency, Action for Victims of Medical Accidents and advertisements in the local press, were included if they had experience of suffering harm or error to themselves or their families during healthcare. Four preparatory Patient Learning Journey workshops prepared the patient group for the teaching programme 29. The workshops created a confidential supportive environment where the group could comfortably share their experiences, bond with each other, identify key aspects to include within the narrative, and adopt a learner-centred approach 22…”

“…A pilot study29 tested the feasibility of developing and implementing the patient-led intervention, its acceptability among patients and trainee doctors, and the practicality of delivering the intervention within an established training programme. The suitability of the outcome measures was also assessed leading to confidence in the sensitivity of the APSQ to detect changes in attitudes and knowledge in both groups.…”