The Impact of Patient Safety Training on Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Safety Competence: A quasi-experimental study

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Background and Aim: The global movement toward patient safety calls for the engineering of the healthcare system, including undergraduate and graduate healthcare academic education and training. However, improving and maintaining patient safety in the healthcare system is a challenging task. The aim of the current study was to assess the impact of patient safety training program on 4th-year nursing students’ perception of safety competencies. Materials and Methods: A quasi-experimental, post-test-only nonequivalent group design, was conducted. The course was designed based on the World Health Organization patient-safety guide and was conducted over four hours. A total of 144 students were invited to participate in the study. One hundred and twenty-seven students were recruited and were divided between the intervention (n=63) and the control group (n=64). Results: The study results showed a significant difference between the mean of students’ safety perception scores of the intervention group (M=4.6, SD=0.41) and the control group (M=3.7, SD=0.69), t (118) =8.4, p <0. 001. All students attended the leadership and management courses (theoretical and practical) while none of them were received a patient safety training prior to this study. Furthermore, no significant differences in means of patients’ safety competence scores and students’ demographic factors (p< .05). Conclusion: Patient safety education is a crucial ingredient in ensuring the safety of the healthcare system. Nurses are at the forefront of care delivery, and therefore they must be competent in patient safety.