The patient safety curriculum: An interventional study on the effectiveness of patient safety education for Jordanian nursing students

Abstract

Introduction The purpose of the study was to assess the effectiveness of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) patient safety curriculum (PSC) in improving the patient safety education for nursing students in Jordanian higher education programmes. Methods An interventional design adopting a pre-test and post-test was used. A questionnaire survey was administered to 373 nursing students before and after the curriculum. Students were asked to complete pre-test and post-test questionnaires on self-awareness of patient safety. Results Students had moderate knowledge of factors that influence patient safety and scored as the highest, (mean 3.45, SD 0.94). The greatest improvement was in the role of the health organisation in error reporting (the mean difference was 0.97, P = 0.001). Taking into consideration the essential measurements, the results obtained after the post-test regarding the two patient safety topics showed a significant increase after completing the training, demonstrating that the patient safety course was effective. Conclusion The study highlights the importance of developing a curriculum in nursing schools that incorporates patient safety education. The WHO PSC guide can be a great start in this domain.