As colleges and schools of pharmacy develop core courses related to patient safety, course-level outcomes will need to include both knowledge and performance measures. Three key performance outcomes for patient safety coursework, measured at the course level, are the ability to perform root cause analyses and healthcare failure mode effects analyses, and the ability to generate effective safety communications using structured formats such as the Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) situational briefing model. Each of these skills is widely used in patient safety work and competence in their use is essential for a pharmacist's ability to contribute as a member of a patient safety team.Keywords: performance outcomes, patient safety, root cause analysis, failure mode and effects analysis, structured communicationThe 1995 background papers of the Commission to Implement Change in Pharmaceutical Education set forth key elements to train pharmacists capable of participating in the healthcare system of the future.1 Yanchick demonstrated that the broad competency categories identified in background paper 5 2 aligned well with the 2003 recommendations of the Health Professions Education Summit, which called for all health professionals to be able to demonstrate proficiency in delivering patient-centered care, working in interdisciplinary teams, employing evidencebased practice, applying quality improvement approaches, and using informatics.3 As pharmacy programs establish coursework to prepare student pharmacists to participate in patient safety and quality improvement activities, both knowledge-based outcomes and performance outcomes must be developed. This paper discusses 3 performance outcomes that should be included and assessed at the course level to ensure that pharmacists on health care teams are able to effectively implement quality assurance programs and communicate patient safety concerns. Two of the competencies deal with widely-adopted formal approaches to assessing or predicting potential medical errors: root cause analysis (RCA) and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA). The third competency is the ability to effectively use situational briefing formats; specifically, the SituationBackground-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) model, which is becoming the primary format for communication among nurses, physicians, and other health care providers regarding specific patient care situations.
RESIDENCY COMPETENCIES AS GUIDES FOR A PATIENT SAFETY CURRICULUMIn response to the growing awareness of morbidity and mortality arising from medical errors, and to the recommendations of the Health Professions Education Summit, health professions residency directors have increased their programs' attention to patient safety skills and behaviors. The Accrediting Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has established 6 core competencies that should form the basis of medical residency training: patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning, communication, professionalism, and system-based pra...
