Centre for Patient Safety, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Dean's Office, Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Apr 25;24(1):452. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05348-8.
Educating health professionals on patient safety can potentially reduce healthcare-associated harm. Patient safety courses have been incorporated into medical and nursing curricula in many high-income countries and their impact has been demonstrated in the literature through objective assessments. This study aimed to explore student perceptions about a patient safety course to assess its influence on aspiring health professionals at a personal level as well as to explore differences in areas of focus between medical and nursing students.
A dedicated patient safety course was introduced for year III medical and year II and IV nursing students at the Aga Khan University (2021-2022). As part of a post-course assessment, 577 participating students (184 medical and 393 nursing) wrote reflections on the course, detailing its influence on them. These free-text responses were thematically analyzed using NVivo.
The findings revealed five major themes: acquired skills (clinical, interpersonal), understanding of medical errors (increased awareness, prevention and reduction, responding to errors), personal experiences with patient safety issues, impact of course (changed perceptions, professional integrity, need for similar sessions, importance of the topic) and course feedback (format, preparation for clinical years, suggestions). Students reported a lack of baseline awareness regarding the frequency and consequences of medical errors. After the course, medical students reported a perceptional shift in favor of systems thinking regarding error causality, and nursing students focused on human factors and error prevention. The interactive course format involving scenario-based learning was deemed beneficial in terms of increasing awareness, imparting relevant clinical and interpersonal skills, and changing perspectives on patient safety.
Student perspectives illustrate the benefits of an early introduction of dedicated courses in imparting patient safety education to aspiring health professionals. Students reported a lack of baseline awareness of essential patient safety concepts, highlighting gaps in the existing curricula. This study can help provide an impetus for incorporating patient safety as a core component in medical and nursing curricula nationally and across the region. Additionally, patient safety courses can be tailored to emphasize areas identified as gaps among each professional group, and interprofessional education can be employed for shared learning. The authors further recommend conducting longitudinal studies to assess the long-term impact of such courses.
对卫生专业人员进行患者安全教育可能会降低医疗保健相关伤害。在许多高收入国家，患者安全课程已被纳入医学和护理课程，其影响已在文献中通过客观评估得到证明。本研究旨在探讨学生对患者安全课程的看法，以评估其对医学生和护生个人的影响，并探讨医学生和护生关注重点的差异。
在阿迦汗大学（2021-2022 年）为三年级医学生和二年级和四年级护生开设了一门专门的患者安全课程。作为课程评估的一部分，577 名参与学生（184 名医学生和 393 名护生）详细记录了课程对他们的影响，写了课程反思。这些自由文本回复使用 NVivo 进行了主题分析。
研究结果揭示了五个主要主题：获得的技能（临床、人际）、对医疗错误的理解（提高认识、预防和减少、对错误做出反应）、个人患者安全问题的经验、课程的影响（改变观念、专业诚信、对类似课程的需求、主题的重要性）和课程反馈（格式、为临床年做准备、建议）。学生们报告说，他们对医疗错误的频率和后果缺乏基本认识。课程结束后，医学生报告说，他们对错误因果关系的系统思维观念发生了转变，而护生则关注人为因素和错误预防。涉及基于情景的学习的互动课程模式被认为在提高认识、传授相关临床和人际交往技能以及改变对患者安全的看法方面是有益的。
学生的观点说明了向有抱负的卫生专业人员早期引入专门的患者安全教育课程的好处。学生报告说，他们对基本患者安全概念缺乏基本认识，这突出了现有课程中的差距。本研究可以为在全国乃至该地区将患者安全纳入医学和护理课程的核心部分提供动力。此外，可以根据每个专业群体的差距，调整患者安全课程的重点，并采用跨专业教育进行共同学习。作者还建议进行纵向研究，以评估此类课程的长期影响。
