A multi‐university assessment of patient safety competence during clinical training among baccalaureate nursing students: A cross‐sectional study

Journal Article

2019

Published in: Journal of Clinical Nursing

Tork, Nahed Alquwez, Jonas Preposi Cruz, Farhan Alshammari, Ebaa Marwan Felemban, Joseph U. Almazan, Regie B. Tumala, Hawa M. Alabdulaziz, Fatmah Alsolami, John Paul Ben T. Silang, Hanan M. M. . 2019

Aims and objectives: To assess the perceived patient safety competence during clini‐ cal training of Saudi nursing students. Background: Ensuring safety in healthcare settings requires improvements in the educational and clinical practice of professionals. Experts stressed that shared pa‐ tient safety culture must be of primary importance; they also emphasised the reso‐ lute need for theoretically driven research approaches for patient safety competence in healthcare organisations and educational institutions. Design: Descriptive, cross‐sectional design. Methods: This study was conducted in six government universities in Saudi Arabia. A sample of 829 nursing students was surveyed using the health professional educa‐ tion in patient safety survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to ana‐ lyse the data. The study adhered to the STROBE guideline for cross‐sectional studies (See Supporting Information Appendix S1). Results: The percentage of agreement on the items of the health professional educa‐ tion in patient safety survey ranged from 61.5%–76.5%. The dimension “understand‐ ing human and environmental factors” received the highest perceived competence, whereas the dimension “working in teams” received the lowest competence. Significant differences in students’ patient safety competence from different univer‐ sities were reported. Male students perceived their competence in “working in teams” higher than the female students. Students in their internship year had signifi‐ cantly higher levels of competence in all the six dimensions of the health professional education in patient safety survey than students in the third‐ and fourth‐year levels. Conclusions: Saudi nursing students have positive perceptions towards their patient safety competencies. Significant differences were found in the patient safety compe‐ tence of nursing students between universities, gender and year of study. Relevance to clinical practice: The results provide valuable insights and guidance for improving the patient safety competence of nursing students. The findings can be used to guide the creation of policies and interventions that may ensure the continuous development of patient safety competence of nursing students as they navigate the clinical area.

Alquwez, N., Cruz, J. P., Alshammari, F., Felemban, E. M., Almazan, J. U., Tumala, R. B., Alabdulaziz, H. M., Alsolami, F., Silang, J. P. B. T., & Tork, H. M. M. (2019). A multi‐university assessment of patient safety competence during clinical training among baccalaureate nursing students: A cross‐sectional study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(9-10), 1771-1781. doi: 10.1111/jocn.14790