Patient Safety Competency and its Related Aspects in Professional Education among Nursing Students of Two Nursing Schools in Iran: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Background: The importance of patient safety competency in nursing students to enter the clinical environment has made continuous studies necessary. However, only few studies have been conducted to assess and compare patient safety competency and its related aspects among nursing students in various settings.Purpose: This study aimed to compare patient safety competency and its related aspects among undergraduate nursing students of two nursing schools.Methods: This descriptive comparative study was conducted at two nursing schools (A and B) in Iran. Using a census method, 240 undergraduate nursing students were enrolled from group A and 200 ones from group B. In total, 377 students completed the survey (response rate = 76.60 %). Data were collected using the adapted Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS). Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 21) and running descriptive statistics and independent samples t- test. The significance level was set at p<0.05.  Results: Results showed that nursing students’ means (SD) of patient safety competency in classroom (3.43(0.60)) and clinical setting (3.32(0.62)) were significantly higher in Group A compared with Group B (2.66(0.90) and 2.39(0.9), respectively). The means of the broader aspects of patient safety and comfortable speaking up about patient safety were significantly lower in Group A than Group B (3.58(0.71) and 3.31(0.59)) versus (3.79(0.71) and 3.55(0.72)).Conclusion: Nursing students from two different nursing schools had varied levels of patient safety competency in the classroom and clinical settings. In addition, it was found that the participants had different perspectives on aspects of patient safety and perceptions of speaking up about patient safety (p<0.05).