Perspectives on Patient Safety Among Practical Nursing Students

Instruments for measuring patient safety competencies in nursing: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Patient safety competencies in nursing are essential for the quality of healthcare. To develop practices and collaboration in nursing care, valid instruments that measure competencies in patient safety are needed.

OBJECTIVE

To identify instruments that measure the patient safety competencies of nurses.

DESIGN

A scoping review.

DATA SOURCES

The Cochran Library, Epistemonikos, Eric, Ovid Medline, CINAHL, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched for articles reporting on instruments measuring patient safety competence in nursing. The search was limited to English peer-reviewed scientific papers published from January 2010 to April 2021.

REVIEW METHOD

A blinded selection of articles fulfilling the inclusion criteria was performed by two researchers based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Data were then extracted, synthesised and presented in tables and text.

RESULTS

Our search identified 1,426 papers, of which 32 met the inclusion criteria. The selected papers described nine instruments, of which the 'Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey' was the most used instrument. The identified instruments comprised domains for patient safety skills, attitudes, knowledge, communication, teamwork and errors. The instruments had been tested for content (face) and construct validity as well as for reliability. However, sensitivity and responsiveness were rarely assessed.

CONCLUSIONS

Over the last decade, there has been a growing body of instruments aimed at measuring patient safety competencies among nurses. The future development of new instruments should consider including the important dimension of ethics in patient safety as well as evaluating the instrument's responsiveness to be able to track changes over time.

Perceived Patient Safety Competence of Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Descriptive Comparative Study

Introduction

Patient safety is an issue of utmost concern within health care. An interrelated approach between nursing education and practice is needed. For more than a decade, nursing education programs have responded to calls for curricular reform, integrating strategies to prepare graduates for safe nursing practice.

Objectives

The purpose of the descriptive study was to examine self-perceived safety competencies among baccalaureate (BSN) nursing students at end of program (n = 72) using the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey. In addition to the objective of describing self-perceived safety competencies of BSN students, another objective was to investigate any significant differences in self-perceived competencies between traditional 4-year and accelerated 12-month program students.

Methods

A descriptive comparative design was used with a purposive sample of baccalaureate nursing students from both traditional and accelerated second-degree programs at a comprehensive university in the Northeast.

Results

Students rated self-confidence with patient safety learned in the clinical environment higher than within the classroom setting. Overall, students reported a high level of self-confidence within each of the seven patient safety dimensions with knowledge gained from the clinical setting higher than knowledge gained from the classroom setting. Paired t-test analyses revealed statistically significant differences (p < .05) between self-confidence gained in classroom and clinical environments with communicating effectively and managing safety risks. Independent t-test analyses revealed accelerated students reported lower self-confidence than traditional students, with statistically significant differences (p < .05) in dimensions of culture of safety, working in teams, managing safety risks, and disclosing adverse events/close calls.

Conclusion

In most patient safety dimensions, students felt confident with their competencies within each of the dimensions of patient safety. Results also revealed that accelerated second-degree students report lower confidence with their knowledge of patient safety gained from classroom and clinical settings. Nursing programs must continue to emphasize a culture of safety within the nursing curriculum.