Aim: The study aimed to investigate the perceptions of patient safety competency (PSC) among a sample of graduating healthcare professionals in a developing country.     Methods: A cross-sectional survey on self-reported confidence in PSC was conducted among 469 graduands of pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy and medical imaging at a private healthcare educational institution in Malaysia. Students’ confidence in six core domains of competency in the validated Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS) questionnaire was evaluated in the classroom and clinical settings.    Results: Nursing students were the most confident in PSC followed by pharmacy, physiotherapy and medical imaging students (p < 0.05) in both settings. The pharmacists’ scores in both settings were equal in all the domains except for the learning on the ‘Recognise and respond to reduce harm’ domain (p = 0.01).    Conclusion: Based on H-PEPSS, the pharmacy students attained equal high levels of confidence in patient safety competency from both classroom and clinical settings.

The national philosophy of education in Nigeria recognises the need for social science knowledge in building the desired social orientation needed after independence in mobilising the young citizens for national development. But, the provision for teaching and learning the social science subject disciplines is made only for senior secondary schools and institutions of higher learning; because, learning the curriculum content of the social sciences in the real context of the subject disciplines that make up the social sciences is beyond the grips of the child in primary and junior secondary schools. However, the National Policy on Education emphasises the need for teaching and learning in primary and junior secondary schools to be directed toward building the foundation for senior secondary and higher education. Thus, as did the USA, the teaching of social studies education in Nigerian schools at these levels is meant to lay a foundation for the learning and use of social science knowledge in developing the desired citizenship for national development. But, unlike the USA, this approach seems to yield very little success in the context of Nigeria. This paper examines issues relating to the seeming failure of social studies education as a foundation for social science education in building the desired responsible citizenship.