Patient safety topics, especially the second victim phenomenon, are neglected in undergraduate medical and nursing curricula in Europe: an online observational study

Abstract

This study aims to assess the inclusion of second victims and other patient safety issues in the curricula of undergraduate medical and nursing degrees in the countries participating in the European Researchers’ Network Working on Second Victims (The ERSNT Consortium, COST Action 19,113). A review of medical and nursing school curricula in 206 universities was carried out, using their websites to search for subjects addressing “patient safety”, “quality of care”, “risk management”, “safe practices”, “interprofessional communication”, “adverse events”, and “second victims”. There was substantial variability in the extent of training for patient safety. Forty-four out of 88 nursing schools and 74 of 118 medical schools did not include any of the patient safety topics studied. The most frequent in both nursing and medicine was “interprofessional communication”, followed by “quality of care” and basic aspects on “patient safety”. The second victim phenomenon was present in only one curriculum of the total sample. Our study showed that patient safety, especially the second victim phenomenon, is still neglected in medical and nursing curricula in European universities, although positive initiatives were also found. Given the frequency with which adverse events occur in health centres and the need to prepare students to deal with them adequately, additional efforts are needed to introduce patient safety elements into medical and nursing education.

Evaluating the Integration of Patient Safety in Medical Training in Spain

“…As for care quality, in the present study, we observed that 34% of medical faculties integrate this topic into their curse syllabus. This figure is similar to that published in a European study showing that 38% of European medical faculties integrate quality into their curricular plan, with this figure being higher in universities in southern Europe where 50% of the centers integrate quality care topics [ 22 ].…”

“…Therefore, it is possible that the integration of PS in universities in the EU and Japan is currently higher. If we compare ourselves with Europe, more recently in 2023, a study found an integration of patient safety training of 36% in European medical faculties, and 50% in faculties in southern Europe [ 22 ], lower values than those found in our study.…”

“…Although 82% of faculties have integrated some patient safety topics, the maximum number of WHO-recommended topics integrated into the training was 7, found in only 1 faculty, and only 11% have integrated between 5 and 7 of the 11 topics recommended by WHO. These results, although they can be inferred based on other studies at both the national and international levels [ 14 , 22 , 23 , 25 – 28 ], are the first obtained with this methodology, in which the training offered in patient safety specifically by medical faculties in Spain is verified.…”

“…In Europe, a published study [ 22 ] observed that 60% of the examined European faculties do not have any of the WHO-recommended patient safety topics integrated into their training. Other published studies that aim to measure the extent of undergraduate training in patient safety assess the level of knowledge and/or attitudes of students towards patient safety [ 17 ], evaluate the curriculum of a faculty [ 4 ], or through surveys, either of individual universities or at the national study [ 10 , 23 ].…”

Unveiling the hidden struggle of healthcare students as second victims through a systematic review

“…In spite of these data, students are typically not informed about the phenomenon of second victims or how to respond in the event of making or witnessing a mistake, including during their period of training in faculties and schools [ 54 ]. They express a desire for support from their workplace and believe that preparation for these situations should commence during their university education [ 4 ].…”