Medical Students’ Insights Towards Patient Safety

Objectives: This study aimed to explore Saudi Arabian medical students’ perceptions of patient safety. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in September 2019. The Attitudes to Patient Safety Questionnaire (APSQ III) was used to explore undergraduate medical students’ attitudes towards and knowledge of PS. The main outcomes measured were the APSQ III’s nine domains. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and students’ attitudes were communicated as mean scores ± standard deviations. Results: A total of 301 participants were included in this study (response rate: 85.75%). Six domains reflected a positive attitude while three domains showed a neutral attitude. The domain of ‘team functioning’ had the highest mean score (5.8) followed by ‘working hours as a cause of error’ (5.6) and ‘error inevitability’ (5.4). There was a significant difference between gender in the domain ‘patient involvement in reducing error’ (P = 0.012) and ‘importance of patient safety (PS) in the curriculum’ (P = 0.001). In addition, the ‘importance of PS in the curriculum’ domain was significantly different across different age groups (P = 0.039). Conclusion: Medical students were highly interested in PS and recommended implementing a comprehensive undergraduate PS programme to fulfil their educational needs.
Keywords: Undergraduate Medical Education; Patient Safety; Medical Errors; Attitude; Medical Students; Medical Ethics; Patient Care; Saudi Arabia.