The attitudes of Korean medical students toward patient safety

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigated the attitudes of Korean medical students about patient safety to determine which perspectives required increased focus in terms of educational development.MethodsAttitudes were assessed using the Patient Safety Questionnaire, a tool designed to measure attitudes toward patient safety among medical students. Questionnaires were distributed to 580 clinical year students across four medical schools in December 2018.ResultsA total of 300 returned questionnaires were used in the final analysis. More than half of all respondents agreed (i.e., gave more than 4 out of 7 points) with most items and thoroughly considered the concept of patient safety. However, many students misperceived several items (e.g., professional incompetence as a cause of errors, disclosure responsibility, the importance of patient safety in the curriculum, and situational awareness).ConclusionAttitudes toward patient safety are highly important due to their substantial impacts on behavioral decisions in the clinical setting. As such, patient safety education should be designed to place greater emphasis on proper attitude. This study’s findings should be useful for medical instructors who wish to determine the appropriate areas of curricular focus.

Patient Safety in the Eyes of Aspiring Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review of Their Attitudes

“…Of these, 157 studies were excluded for various reasons, such as mismatch with the inclusion criteria, wrong study design (e.g., validation study, quasi-experimental design), mixed population, wrong focus of the study, or full text not available (see Supplementary File 3 ). Finally, 31 studies meeting the inclusion criteria were included [ 13 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ] (see Supplementary File 4 ).…”

“…In all included studies, the sampling strategy was relevant to address the research question. In more than two thirds of the studies, the study sample was clearly described and representative of the target population [ 13 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 28 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ], the risk of non-response bias low [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 31 , 33 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 49 ], and the statistical analysis appropriate to answer the research question [ 13 , 20 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 27 ,…”

Undergraduate medical students’ attitudes towards medical errors and patient safety: a multi-center cross-sectional study in the Gaza Strip, Palestine

“…This should alert medical educators to involve patient safety in their future curricula. Other studies also found medical students to be positive towards the inclusion of patient safety contents in the curricula [11,[50][51][52][53]. However, despite the importance they felt for inclusion of patient safety contents in the curricula, the majority of students found that patient safety was mainly learned in clinical practice, rather than in lecture rooms.…”

Attitudes Toward Patient Safety among Medical Students in Malaysia

“…Even though Carruthers et al used a Likert scale of 1–7, some studies have used the Likert scale of 1–5 [ 17 , 18 ]. In this study, the items were measured on a scale of 1–5, where a response of 1 indicated disagreement while a response of 5 indicated agreement to the statement.…”

“…While positive experiences enhance patient safety, negative experiences may lead to more harm to the patients. Even though many researches had been conducted elsewhere on medical students' attitudes towards patient safety [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], such a study is yet to be conducted in Malaysia. Studies conducted in the USA, Pakistan, Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong have shown inadequate awareness of medical error reporting.…”