Patient Safety in the Eyes of Aspiring Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review of Their Attitudes

Abstract

A culture of safety is important for the delivery of safe, high-quality care, as well as for healthcare providers’ wellbeing. This systematic review aimed to describe and synthesize the literature on patient safety attitudes of the next generation of healthcare workers (health professional students, new graduates, newly registered health professionals, resident trainees) and assess potential differences in this population related to years of study, specialties, and gender. We screened four electronic databases up to 20 February 2020 and additional sources, including weekly e-mailed search alerts up to 18 October 2020. Two independent reviewers conducted the search, study selection, quality rating, data extraction, and formal narrative synthesis, involving a third reviewer in case of dissent. We retrieved 6606 records, assessed 188 full-texts, and included 31 studies. Across articles, healthcare students and young professionals showed overwhelmingly positive patient safety attitudes in some areas (e.g., teamwork climate, error inevitability) but more negative perceptions in other domains (e.g., safety climate, disclosure responsibility). Women tend to report more positive attitudes. To improve safety culture in medical settings, health professions educators and institutions should ensure education and training on patient safety.

Perceptions of Patient Safety Culture Dimensions among Hospital Nurses: A Systematic Review

“…On the basis of the commonalities among surveys, we grouped the results from these studies into seven patient safety culture dimensions, as shown in Fig. 4 [26].…”

“…The extracted data were synthesized in a simple manner. Attitude was considered highly positive if the article reported the score as positive or having a scale score > 75; attitude was considered positive/desirable if an item had a mean score > 3 on a 5-point Likert scale or > 4 on a 7-point Likert scale, i.e., "strongly agree," "agree," or "somewhat agree" [22,26].…”

“…Because different patient safety culture assessment questionnaires were used in the reviewed articles, for ease of understanding and discussion, the observations are discussed under the following dimensions: teamwork, safety climate, working conditions, management support, frequency of errors reported, feedback and communication, and overall patient safety culture [26]. The characteristic items of these dimensions that were considered in reviewing the articles are shown in Fig.…”

Knowledge and Attitudes towards Patient Safety among Students in Physical Therapy in Spain: A Longitudinal Study

“…Attitudes towards patient safety correspond to the beliefs and values that professionals have on the perception of security in their workplace. Students and professionals in their first steps usually show more positive attitudes regarding patient security in areas such as teamwork, error inevitability, and the presence of specific curricular training on patient security [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Empowering Patients and Supporting Health Care Providers—New Avenues for High Quality Care and Safety

“…Given that patient safety is crucial for delivering high-quality care [ 26 ], aspiring healthcare providers should be supported in acquiring adequate patient safety skills [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. To better understand patient safety attitudes among young healthcare workers and healthcare profession students, Tocco-Tussardi et al [ 30 ] synthesized the existing literature and concluded that this population shows overwhelmingly positive attitudes in certain domains, such as teamwork climate and error inevitability but more negative perceptions in other areas, such as safety climate and disclosure responsibility. The authors urge health professions educators and institutions to create a learning culture by integrating patient safety education and training in the curricula of aspiring healthcare professionals and to guarantee that the influential hidden curriculum better reflects the elements of the explicit curriculum.…”