Perceptions of Postgraduate Students About Patient Safety as Part of the Curriculum at Undergraduate and Postgraduate Level

Abstract


 Objective: To explore their perception how patient safety is being addressed in undergraduate and post graduate medical curriculum
 
 Methods: This was descriptive survey; using the universal sampling technique a questionnaire based survey was conducted with 80 post graduate residentss in two selected tertiary care hospitals to determine their attitude towards the patient’s safety measures. A tested questionnaire was used to collected data. Descriptive statistics were obtained by using SPSS software version 20.
 
 Results: out of total 80 participants 16% were female and 84% were male having clinical experience ranged from 2-5 years. Regarding the attitude varying responses were reported. 17(21.3%) were strongly agreed that Making errors in medicine is inevitable, similarly 52(65%) were also strongly agreed that consciousness after encountering with error could reduce the occurrence. 29(36.3%) were strongly agreed that Competent physicians do not make medical errors, regarding morality 55(68.8%) were strongly agrees the patient safety is our moral responsibility. however they indicated that there is lack of proper reporting system which act as barrier. Less than half of the participants were in support of routinely report medical errors. 58(72.5%) reported with disagreement regarding reporting the medical error. The document review shows that there is no specific slot delegated to the patient safety measure in the curriculum of Postgraduate as well as undergraduate medical curriculum however they has addressed the topic indirectly to some extent.
 
 Conclusion: It is concluded that the participants (Trainees medical officers) had positive attitude towards the patient safety. Although they are aware about patient safety however has varying interpretations depending upon the case and situation. The medical errors being inevitable aspects is broadly associated with; the human factor, system and management factors which have further multi-facets linkages, contributing to medical error. The main reason for the patient safety concerns is due to the gap between what WHO recommended about patient safety and the curricular contents of undergraduate and postgraduate medical studies in Pakistan