Effect of Patient Safety Curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents on a Health Care System

Abstract

Background Healthcare organizations seeking to promote a safety culture depend on engaged clinicians. Academic medical centers include a community of physicians-in-training; however, medical residents and fellows are historically less engaged in patient safety (PS) than are other clinicians. Increased attention has been focused on integrating PS into graduate medical education. Nonetheless, developing curricula that result in real-world system changes is difficult. Objective To develop an interactive PS curriculum for internal medicine (IM) residents that analyzes real-word PS problems. Methods A multidisciplinary group developed a five-session, case-based PS curriculum for IM residents in the context of a 3-year, longitudinal quality-improvement, PS, and high-value-care curriculum. The curriculum was facilitated by a PS analyst and incorporated mock root cause analysis (RCA) based on actual resident-reported PS events. Each mock RCA developed an action plan, and outcomes were tracked. Pre- and postcurriculum assessments with participating residents were conducted to evaluate the curriculum. Results Twenty-eight IM residents completed the curriculum during four iterations from 2017 to 2020. The curriculum identified multiple potential PS risks, led to tangible changes in clinical processes, and enhanced resident confidence in improving systems of care. Conclusions We describe an active-learning PS curriculum for IM residents that addressed actual resident-reported PS problems. Through RCA, action items were identified and meaningful system changes were made. Leveraging the expertise of local PS experts in the design and delivery of PS curricula may improve the translation of learner recommendations into real system changes and cultivate a positive PS culture.

The patient safety curriculum: An interventional study on the effectiveness of patient safety education for Jordanian nursing students

“…Despite the significance of ensuring patient safety and the necessity of raising awareness about it, only a small number of educational institutions include this subject in their syllabus [ 6 , 11 , 14 ]. Historically, the educational program for nursing and medical students has concentrated exclusively on practical abilities; such as identifying illness, providing treatments, providing post treatment care and monitoring [ 9 , 12 , 15 , 16 ]. However, the concepts of communication skills, root cause analysis, system thinking, human factor science has been disregarded to a great extent [ 14 , 17 , 18 ].…”

“…The opportunity to participate in this worldwide assessment as a “Complementary Test Site” is open to all schools and universities that specialize in nursing, dentistry, medicine, midwifery, pharmacy, and other healthcare professions [ 4 ]. These institutions should be interested in incorporating topics from this guide that were adopted in similar studies [ 15 , 17 , 22 , 23 ]. These universities and schools should be recognized by the national regulatory bodies of their country and be able to demonstrate an interest in teaching patient safety [ 4 ].…”

The Patient Safety Curriculum: An Interventional Study on the Effectiveness of Patient Safety Education for Jordanian Nursing Students

“…Despite the significance of ensuring patient safety and the necessity of raising awareness about it, only a small number of educational institutions include this subject in their syllabus (6, 11, 14). Historically, the educational program for nursing and medical students has concentrated exclusively on practical abilities; such as identifying illness, providing treatments, providing post treatment care and monitoring (9, 12, 15, 16). However, the concepts of communication skills, root cause analysis, system thinking, human factor science has been disregarded to a great extent (14, 17, 18).…”

Safety culture survey among medical residents in Japan: a nationwide cross-sectional study

“…Furthermore, in Japan, more than 70% of resident physicians reported experiencing at least one incident, and facilities’ safety culture influenced error reporting 12. Despite the recognised importance of safety culture in resident physician training, there is limited exploratory research that directly targets resident physicians’ experiences 13–15…”