Integrating patient safety education into pharmacy curriculum in Nigeria

Abstract

Recognition has been given to patient safety and healthcare quality as central components of a functional health system which has resulted in increased advocacy for elaborate patient safety content in education and training programmes for health professionals. The World Health Organisation’s patient safety curriculum is an evidence-based framework that provides a valuable resource for the training of healthcare professionals in enhancing patient safety. Other international organisations have also advocated for the need to restructure healthcare professionals’ education to include the concept of patient safety. The ideal time to initiate patient safety education is suggested to be during schooling through curricula that inculcate learning from adverse events. This will prepare pharmacy students as future healthcare professionals who will become better prepared for clinical practice leading to improved healthcare quality and safety.

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

“…The WHO developed training and we have chosen two topics from 11 topics because of limited funding and resources. The intervention was based on the WHO PSC guide for multidisciplinary health professions [ 4 , 13 , 16 , 17 ]. We taught selected topics from this curriculum to all nursing students as part of several courses during their studies.…”

“…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 ]. It is essential for patient safety that all nursing students at the undergraduate level to possess all these essential skills and the required proficiency to reduce any harm to patients [ 3 , 10 ].…”

“…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

“…Interventional study adopting the pre-test and post-test method. The intervention was based on the WHO PSC guide for multidisciplinary health professions (4, 13, 16, 17). We taught selected topics from this curriculum to all nursing students as part of several courses during their studies.…”