Students’ Assessment on the Patient Safety Education: The Case of College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar

Abstract

It is well‑known that clinical practice could never be free from medical errors. Respectively, in the case of a large number of students with a huge diversity of disciplines, the breach of patients’ safety is not uncommon. Thus, this study aimed to assess students’ evaluation of patients’ safety education in their curriculum. Materials and Methods: A cross‑sectional study was conducted among 338 students at the University of Gondar. A descriptive analysis was done by using Stata version 13 software and data were presented in tables and text. Results: As stated by 33.40% of medical interns and 51.10% of nursing students, patients’ safety education was given as a chapter of a course. On the contrary, 48.20% of midwifery and 32.10% of health officer students stated that it was given as a small portion in a chapter in their curriculum. Almost 60% of students of all professional categories self‑reported that their average level of knowledge on the patients’ safety rested between “fair” and “poor.” Likewise, more than half of students of all professional categories had a “neutral” to “disagree” level of attitude for attitude items. Concerning teaching methods, most students preferred real‑life examples and problem‑based learning approaches as helpful in patients’ safety education. Conclusions: Patients’ safety education has been given less emphasis. Students also self‑reported that their average level of knowledge was low. Real‑life examples and problem‑based learning approaches were preferred learning methods among most of the students