Self-reported patient safety competence among Canadian medical students and postgraduate trainees: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

BackgroundQuality and patient safety (PS) are critical components of medical education. This study reports on the self-reported PS competence of medical students and postgraduate trainees.MethodsThe Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey was administered to medical students and postgraduate trainees in January 2012. PS dimension scores were compared across learning settings (classroom and clinical) and year in programme.ResultsSixty-three percent (255/406) of medical students and 32% (141/436) of postgraduate trainees responded. In general, both groups were most confident in their learning of clinical safety skills (eg, hand hygiene) and least confident in learning about sociocultural aspects of safety (eg, understanding human factors). Medical students’ confidence in most aspects of safety improved with years of training. For some of the more intangible dimensions (teamwork and culture), medical students in their final year had lower scores than students in earlier years. Thirty-eight percent of medical students felt they could approach someone engaging in unsafe practice, and the majority of medical students (85%) and postgraduate trainees (78%) agreed it was difficult to question authority.ConclusionsOur results suggest the need to improve the overall content, structure and integration of PS concepts in both classroom and clinical learning environments. Decreased confidence in sociocultural aspects of PS among medical students in the final year of training may indicate that culture in clinical settings negatively affects students’ perceived PS competence. Alternatively, as medical students spend more time in the clinical setting, they may develop a clearer sense of what they do not know.

Theoretical-practical acquisition of topics relevant to patient safety: dilemmas in the training of nurses

“…The fact that students reported that they did not have the necessary contact with the subject "culture of blame" contributes to the perpetuation of the punitive ideology regarding errors, not allowing students to understand errors as an opportunity to learn, as well as to develop abilities to prevent them. 11 With regard to this subject, a study 12 conducted in China showed that students in the healthcare area felt more comfortable with activities associated with clinical safety, such as hand hygiene, infection control, and safe medication administration practices, than with sociocultural aspects or those contextually dependent on patient safety, such as teamwork, safety risk management, and safety culture.…”

Baccalaureate nursing students’ confidence on patient safety

“…The original H-PEPSS was validated with a sample of interprofessional new healthcare graduates using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and revealed an internal consistency reliability of 0.80 or greater for all six factors and the version adapted for use in students was validated with medical students where a good model of fit was attained using acceptable indices of fit (Confirmatory Fit Index > 0.95, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation < 0.06). [22] Approval to use the H-PEPSS in this research study was received from its developers. Demographic characteristics, including age, gender, year in the program, and educational institution were also collected.…”

Education of hand rubbing technique to prospective medical staff, employing UV-based digital imaging technology

“…The root causes may also include the hierarchy in healthcare [13,14], because the observed behavior greatly influences the students, serving as role model [6,15]. Investigations also revealed that medical students do not have exact knowledge about the use of alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) solutions, or about glove usage guidelines [6,[16][17][18][19]. Only one-third of the students claimed having rubbed their hands between seeing two patients [20].…”