Patient Safety Curriculum Guide Research Articles

Teaching Strategies and Examples of Patient Safety Education in Nursing Students

The second National Patient Safety Comprehensive Plan was developed in 2023. In this, national-level patient safety education is designated as the fifth core task, with the establishment of an educational system for preliminary healthcare professionals included as a detailed task. The foundation for providing patient safety education to preliminary healthcare professionals has now been established. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) published standard guidelines for patient safety education for healthcare professionals. This study introduces the WHO's 'Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multi-professional Edition' and shares the experiences and cases of patient safety education conducted for nursing students—that is, future nurses—according to these guidelines. The patient safety and nursing course was designed as an elective in the second semester of the third year. Before the class was conducted, only 6.9% of the students were familiar with the concept of patient safety. Of the 11 WHO topics, this course covers nine (excluding infection control and medicine safety) and is divided into seven modules. Three modules consist of lectures only, whereas the remaining modules involve practical training. To practice patient safety, it is essential for all healthcare professionals to acquire knowledge regarding patient safety during their undergraduate curriculum. This study aimed to provide foundational information regarding patient safety education for nursing and other healthcare students who have not yet undergone patient safety training.

Exploring the Depth of Patient Safety and Care: An Investigation into the Knowledge and Attitudes of Healthcare Students Across Undergraduate, Graduate, and Postgraduate Levels

Background: Patient safety is a cornerstone of healthcare education, aiming to minimize harm to patients through the reduction of errors. The global emphasis on enhancing patient safety has led to the development of various tools and curricula designed to foster a culture of safety among healthcare professionals, including dental students. With the World Health Organization's endorsement of the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide, there's a recognized need to integrate patient safety principles comprehensively into healthcare training programs. Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes towards patient safety among dental undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students across private and public sector institutes in Karachi, utilizing the Attitude to Patient Safety Questionnaire version III (APSQ-III) as a measure. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted, enrolling 180 participants through convenience sampling from both private and public dental schools in Karachi. The APSQ-III, a validated tool comprising 33 items across nine domains of patient safety, was employed to gather data on students' perceptions. Statistical analysis involved mean score calculations and reliability assessment using Cronbach's alpha. Results: The majority of participants were female (78.9%), with a significant number of undergraduates (169) compared to postgraduates (11). Public sector institutions accounted for a larger share of participants (98) than private (82). Overall, students demonstrated positive attitudes towards patient safety, with mean scores across all domains exceeding 5 on a 7-point Likert scale. Notably, Safety Training and Error Reporting Confidence were highlighted, with postgraduates showing particularly high scores in these areas. The reliability of the APSQ-III in this context was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.8. Conclusion: The study underscores the utility of the APSQ-III in dentistry for evaluating patient safety perceptions, revealing generally positive attitudes and a sound base of knowledge among dental students in Karachi. These findings advocate for the continued emphasis on patient safety education within dental curricula to cultivate a proactive safety culture.

The impact of an educational program on knowledge and perception of patient safety culture among nurses in the two medical colleges of Manipur: A quasi-experimental study.

Nurses' leaders are protracted as high-leverage players who would be instrumental in initiating or bettering the culture of safety in the hospital, with no previous intervention done for the same in Manipur. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention program on patient safety culture among nurses in Manipur. A quasi-experimental study was conducted from July 2019 to December 2021 among the 32 nurses of two tertiary-level hospitals in Manipur. A structured questionnaire and Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture version 2 were used (Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) version 2.O (AHRQ, Rockyville, Maryland, USA)). A 2-day intervention based on the WHO's Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide was used. Data were collected before, immediately, and 3 months after the intervention. Data were summarized using descriptive using IBM SPSS 26. Paired t-test, Chi-square test, and t-test were employed to check for differences within and between the groups, and P < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. The mean knowledge scores were comparable between the groups at baseline (7.13 ± 3.3, 8.44 ± 3.74; P = 0.142) but differed significantly at posttest and follow-up tests (P < 0.0001). The dimensions of "staffing and work pace" and "reporting patient safety events" had the lowest positive responses from both the groups at baseline. There is a significant increase in the total safety score from baseline to posttest and follow-up in the intervention group (P < 0.001). The study asseverated the effectiveness of an educational intervention in increasing the knowledge and perception of patient safety culture, but the results highlighted the need for training at regular intervals.

Are the World Health Organization's Patient Safety Learning Objectives Still Up-to-Date: A Group Concept Mapping Study.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety Curriculum Guide defines learning objectives for patient safety. Current implementation in healthcare education is insufficient. Possible explanations may be obsolescence and/or a shift in needs. We investigated whether overarching topics and specific learning objectives of the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide are still up-to-date, their attributed importance, and their perceived difficulty to achieve. Experts on patient safety and medical education from 3 European countries were asked to suggest learning objectives concerning patient safety using group concept mapping. Following 3 successive steps, experts rated ideas by importance and difficulty to achieve. Correlation analyses investigated the relationship between those. Overarching topics of the learning goals (clusters) were identified with multivariate analysis. A total of 119 statements about intended learning objectives on patient safety were generated, of which 86 remained for sorting and rating. Based on multivariate analyses, 10 overarching topics (clusters) emerged. Both the learning objectives and the overarching topics showed high correspondence with the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide. Strong correlations emerged between importance and difficulty ratings for learning objectives and overarching topics. The WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide's learning goals are still relevant and up-to-date. Remarkably, learning objectives categorized as highly important are also perceived as difficult to achieve. In summary, the insufficient implementation in medical curricula cannot be attributed to the content of the learning goals. The future focus should be on how the WHO learning goals can be implemented in existing curricular courses.

Patient safety in nursing technician training.

to analyze the contents on patient safety in the training of nursing technicians. a documentary study, conducted in three technical nursing courses at a public university in northeastern Brazil, based on the Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide, published by the World Health Organization. we found that, of the 26 subjects in each course, the tracking terms were found in 22 subjects in the A/C courses, 23 in the B course. The topics of the guide with the highest number of terms were the improvement in medication safety, with 85 terms (22.6%), and Infection prevention and control, with 75 terms (20%). The contents do not express the comprehensiveness of patient safety education; some subjects had this focus, while others did not. the documents revealed gaps in the contents related to patient safety and demonstrated that they are addressed only in the course syllabus and discipline plans.

Medication safety practices in healthcare facilities in Kaduna State, Nigeria: a study protocol.

Background:In recent years, there has been growing concern about patient safety and this is becoming a global problem. Medication safety can be used to describe systematic assessments of healthcare professionals’ practices as related to safe use of medicines. Identification and prevention of medication errors is the key component of medication safety. This includes multiple aspects of medication practice and other factors that affect it, such as organisational structure, communication, technologies such as those used for dispensing, and strategies pursued by leadership in cultivating and promoting a culture of safety.Methods:The study adopted a mixed method approach divided into three phases. Phase I is a quantitative phase and involves an assessment of core medication safety practices in the study sites together with an assessment of patient safety culture through the use of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) developed by US Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ). Phase II will involve semi-structured interviews with health care providers and focus group discussions with patients to explore their perspectives on medication safety and to explore their experiences concerning medication safety respectively. Phase III will be an intervention study and will utilise the World Health Organisation (WHO) Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multi professional edition as the intervention tool.Discussion:The study findings will offer substantial opportunity for improvements. The study will also open up an area of patient safety culture, where not much research has been conducted in Nigeria.

Challenges and Ideas for Teamwork in Dementia Care ― Based on TOPIC 4 from WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multi-professional Edition ―

Challenges and Ideas for Teamwork in Dementia Care ― Based on TOPIC 4 from WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multi-professional Edition ―

PATIENT SAFETY: A PROPOSAL FOR CURRICULUM MEASUREMENT

Objective: to propose a form for the assessment of cognitive and curriculum attributes about patient safety in undergraduate nursing students. Methodology: This is a methodological character study, based on Multi-professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide of the World Health Organization and trackers terms identified in the literature. The study included 17 judges subject to Brazilian higher education institutions who formed a committee to assess semantic and idiomatic equivalence issues. Results: theoretical attributes that sustain the knowledge of nursing students to act based on the patient safety principles were structured in 46 items, which assess organizational, training and performance in stages. Conclusions: identification of topics used to assess the knowledge of nursing students about patient safety sets up an instrument for further analysis and reflection, with a view to promoting assistance undamaged.

A growth mindset approach to preparing trainees for medical error

As medical students transition to become trainee doctors, they must confront the potential for making medical errors. In the high stakes environment of medicine, errors can be catastrophic for the...

Simulation in healthcare education: is it only about money?

Editorial No musician would give a concert without having trained to perfection. No actor or actress would ever go on stage without knowing his or her role. Indeed, artist’s training is really tough! Every movement during and even every bow at the end of their performance are trained to perfection. They invest plenty of time to achieve their one and only goal: to thrill their audience. Imagine a theatre employing untrained musicians and actors! How long would this theatre survive? As in the world of art economic survival has always been also a matter of staff training, many theatres all over the world run well-equipped training facilities. So-called “rehearsal stages” provide the safe environment needed to try out new things, to gain self-confidence and to bring any performance to perfection. Training in the world of art is more than a successful concept – it is a successful culture. What about this culture in healthcare? Do healthcare systems or hospital operators provide comparable safe environments? Are today’s healthcare professionals fully enabled to train their skills before treating real patients? Are there enough facilities and programmes available to meet their needs for simulation-based skills training? And if not: Why is that? From the perspective of critically ill or perhaps even incurable persons all these questions reach a new dimension. Nowadays more and more patients rightly refuse being used as a “learning object” [1]. Using simulation as an educational tool reduces risks for patients as well as for learners, allows repeated skills training and facilitates the transfer of classroom-knowledge to real situations [2]. But simulation is not only about technical skills performance. Simulation-based training paves the way for medical crews working together as medical teams even in critical situations. Simulation has the power to sensitize all people involved in patient care to the impact of human factors on care quality. Structured approaches and tools e.g., the life-saving ‘10-seconds-for-10 minutes” principle [3] might be given a better chance to be put into daily practice by using simulation training and structured debriefing rather than using so-called “traditional” teaching methods. Although significance and benefits of simulation-based training in the wide field of healthcare education have been undisputable for decades, in some respects even for centuries [2, 4], there are still blank spots in the core curricula of medical and paramedical educational institutions. Simulation-based programmes in undergraduate education are often electives, reaching not all students. Moreover compulsory simulation-based training programmes are still very rare in postgraduate education. Nevertheless strong efforts are made all over the world to promote simulation-based training as a vital part of patient-safety-training programmes. In 2009 the World Health Organization (WHO) published a Patient Safety Curriculum Guide for Medical Schools [5] followed by a Multi-professional Edition in 2011 [6]. Both documents emphasize the relevance of multiprofessional training using simulation to enhance patient safety [5, 6]. Although those responsible are mostly aware of the wide range of learning and teaching opportunities of simulation and its positive effects on patient safety, many educational institutions as well as hospital operators tend to show more hidden restraint than support. Correspondence: thomas.wegscheider@medunigraz.at Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Division of Special Anesthesiology, Pain-and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 29, 8036 Graz, Austria Clinical Skills Center, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Field Test of the World Health Organization Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide.

IntroductionAlthough the importance of training in patient safety has been acknowledged for over a decade, it remains under-utilized and under-valued in most countries. WHO developed the Multi-professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide to provide schools with the requirements and tools for incorporating patient safety in education. It was field tested with 12 participating schools across the six WHO regions, to assess its effectiveness for teaching patient safety to undergraduate and graduate students in a global variety of settings.MethodsThe evaluation used a combined prospective/retrospective design to generate formative information on the experiences of working with the Guide and summative information on the impacts of the Guide. Using stakeholder interviews and student surveys, data were gathered from each participating school at three times: the start of the field test (baseline), soon after each school started teaching, and soon after each school finished teaching.ResultsStakeholders interviewed were strongly positive about the Guide, noting that it emphasized universally important patient safety topics, was culturally appropriate for their countries, and gave credibility and created a focus on patient safety at their schools. Student perceptions and attitudes regarding patient safety improved substantially during the field test, and their knowledge of the topics they were taught doubled, from 10.7% to 20.8% of correct answers on the student survey.DiscussionThis evaluation documented the effectiveness of the Curriculum Guide, for both ease of use by schools and its impacts on improving the patient safety knowledge of healthcare students. WHO should be well positioned to refine the contents of the Guide and move forward in encouraging broader use of the Guide globally for teaching patient safety.

Evaluation of World Health Organization Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum Topics in Nursing Education: Pre-test, post-test, none-experimental study.

The Multi-professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide was launched by the World Health Organization to develop a patient safety-friendly curriculum in health education. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of teaching related to two topics from the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide on student nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward patient safety. A pretest, posttest, nonexperimental design was used. Patient safety education questionnaires were distributed to a convenience sample of 181 nursing students before the intervention, and 141 questionnaires after the intervention in one university in the East of England. The intervention consisted of two face-to-face lectures and one facilitated group work discussion. Seventy-one responses from pre- and posttest stages were matched. Paired t test, McNemar's test, and frequency measures were used for data analysis. The findings suggest that there are statistically significant differences in the subscales of the error and patient safety and personal influence over safety. The differences in the students' answers on patient safety knowledge before and after the interventions were not statistically significant. Although the student nurses highly commended the teaching delivered in this study, the use of experimental design in future curriculum evaluation may provide a more complementary insight to the findings of this study.

Teaching patient safety in the medical undergraduate program at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo.

Objective To analyze the Educational Project of the undergraduate medical course to verify what is taught regarding Patient Safety and to enable reflections on the educational practice.Methods A descriptive study, using document research as strategy. The document of investigation was the Educational Project of the medical course, in 2006, at the Escola Paulista de Medicina of the Universidade Federal de São Paulo. The theoretical framework adopted was the Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide of the World Health Organization, which led to the preparation of a list with 153 tracking terms.Results We identified 65 syllabus units in the Educational Project of the course, in which 40 (61.5%) addressed topics related to Patient Safety. Themes on the topic “Infection prevention and control” were found in 19 (47.5%) units and teaching of “Interaction with patients and caregivers” in 12 (32.5%); however content related to “Learning from errors to prevent harm” were not found. None of the framework topics had their proposed themes entirely taught during the period of education of the future physicians.Conclusion Patient safety is taught in a fragmented manner, which values clinical skills such as the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, post-treatment, surgical procedures, and follow-up. Since it is a recent movement, the teaching of patient safety confronts informative proposals based on traditional structures centered on subjects and on specific education, and it is still poorly valued.

Educating future leaders in patient safety.

Education of health care professionals has given little attention to patient safety, resulting in limited understanding of the nature of risk in health care and the importance of strengthening systems. The World Health Organization developed the Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multiprofessional Edition to accelerate the incorporation of patient safety teaching into higher educational curricula. The World Health Organization Curriculum Guide uses a health system-focused, team-dependent approach, which impacts all health care professionals and students learning in an integrated way about how to operate within a culture of safety. The guide is pertinent in the context of global educational reforms and growing recognition of the need to introduce patient safety into health care professionals’ curricula. The guide helps to advance patient safety education worldwide in five ways. First, it addresses the variety of opportunities and contexts in which health care educators teach, and provides practical recommendations to learning. Second, it recommends shared learning by students of different professions, thus enhancing student capacity to work together effectively in multidisciplinary teams. Third, it provides guidance on a range of teaching methods and pedagogical activities to ensure that students understand that patient safety is a practical science teaching them to act in evidence-based ways to reduce patient risk. Fourth, it encourages supportive teaching and learning, emphasizing the need to establishing teaching environments in which students feel comfortable to learn and practice patient safety. Finally, it helps educators incorporate patient safety topics across all areas of clinical practice.

Publication of the new Paramedic Curriculum Guidance

Journal of Paramedic PracticeVol. 5, No. 12 College of ParamedicsPublication of the new Paramedic Curriculum GuidanceGraham HarrisGraham HarrisSearch for more papers by this authorGraham HarrisPublished Online:16 Apr 2014https://doi.org/10.12968/jpar.2013.5.12.712AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View articleReferencesBritish Paramedic Association (2006) A Curriculum Framework for Ambulance Education. British Paramedic Association, Derby Google ScholarCollege of Paramedics (2008) Paramedic Curriculum Guidance and Competence Framework. 2nd edn. College of Paramedics, Derby Google ScholarCollege of Paramedics (2013) Paramedic Curriculum Guidance. 3rd edn. College of Paramedics, Bridgwater Google ScholarDepartment of Health (2010) Preceptorship Framework for Newly Registered Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals. Department of Health, London Google ScholarNHS Leadership Academy (2011a) Clinical Leadership Competency Framework. NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, Coventry Google ScholarNHS Leadership Academy (2011b) Guidance for Integrating the Clinical Leadership Competency Framework into Education and Training. NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, Coventry Google ScholarWorld Health Organization (2011) Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multi-professional Edition. WHO Press, Geneva Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 6 December 2013Volume 5Issue 12ISSN (print): 1759-1376ISSN (online): 2041-9457 Metrics History Published online 16 April 2014 Published in print 6 December 2013 Information© MA Healthcare LimitedPDF download

Knowledge of drug prescription in dentistry students

BackgroundStudents in schools of dentistry attend to patients with illnesses, and often prescribe medication. Because students are still learning, they are influenced by a variety of factors: the different teaching approaches of the professors at the clinics and in the pharmacology course, fellow students, and even the information provided by the pharmaceutical industry.ObjectivesThe aim of this pilot study was to assess the prescription knowledge and common mistakes in fourth-year students at the School of Dentistry at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.MethodsIn March 2010, a survey was conducted among 66 fourth-year students at the School of Dentistry, applying a previously validated questionnaire consisting of six open-ended questions The following factors were assessed: the most frequent illness requiring dental prescription; the most prescribed nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics; the most frequent errors; sources of information used for prescribing drugs; and whether the students knew and followed the World Health Organization Guide to Good Prescribing.ResultsThe most frequent response for each question was considered the most significant. The most common reason for prescribing medication was infection (n = 37, 56%), followed by pain (n = 24, 38%); the most used painkillers were ibuprofen and acetaminophen at equal levels (n = 25, 37.8%), followed by ketorolac (n = 7, 10.6%), naproxen (n = 6, 9.1%), diclofenac (n = 2, 3%), and aspirin (n = 1, 1.5%); the most widely prescribed antibiotics were amoxicillin (n = 52, 78.9%), ampicillin (n = 7, 10.6%), and penicillin V and clindamycin (n = 3, 4.5%). The most frequent errors reported by students were: lack of knowledge about drug posology (n = 49, 74.2%), improperly filled prescriptions (n = 7, 10.7%), not knowing the brand names and uncertainty about the correct drug indicated for each case (n = 3, 4.54%), not knowing the duration of treatment (n = 2, 3%), not asking the patient about possible allergies, and not giving prescriptions (n = 1, 1.5%). The sources of information used by students for prescribing drugs included the professors at the clinics (n = 49, 74.2%), the pharmacology course (n = 7, 10.7%), medical dictionary consultation (n = 15, 22.72%), classmate support (n = 3, 4.54%), and information provided by medical representatives from pharmaceutical companies (n = 1, 1.5%). Finally, only 20 students (30.3%) followed the WHO Guide to Good Prescribing, 40 students acknowledged not following it (60.6%), and six students (9.1%) had no knowledge of it.ConclusionThe knowledge of pharmacology among fourth-year students in the School of Dentistry has gaps that could affect patient safety. More studies are needed to determine whether this issue affects the quality of patient care and the effectiveness and safety of treatments. Since prescribing accurately is extremely important, it is necessary to develop therapeutic guidelines, and to provide pharmacological therapy courses. The implementation of educational programs, including the WHO Guide to Good Prescribing and Patient Safety Curriculum Guide, would be beneficial in helping students develop prescribing skills.

The WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide

It is well known that the best time to influence a person’s behaviour is when they are young. As we grow older we become more set in our ways, less amenable to influence, and less able to cope with change. This reasoning also applies to the concept of patient safety. If nurses, doctors and other health professionals are exposed to good quality patient safety education at an early stage in their careers, they will hopefully become positive patient safety advocates and agents of change. This is the reasoning behind the global release of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) multiprofessional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide (the guide), (WHO, 2011), which states:

Republished paper: The WHO patient safety curriculum guide for medical schools

BackgroundThe urgent need for patient safety education for healthcare students has been recognised by many accreditation bodies, but to date there has been sporadic attention to undergraduate/graduate medical programmes. Medical...