gms | German Medical Science

Background: Patient safety is a fundamental principle of health care. Commonly recommended strategies to facilitate patient safety are to educate the recommendations of patient safety and to increase students’ competency through clinical practicum.

Purpose: This study was a descriptive study to explore nursing students’ level of knowledge and competency on patient safety guideline. This study aimed to provide a baseline data for developing evidence based nursing curriculum about patient safety.

Methods: The subjects consisted of 932 senior nursing students who have had clinical practice in nursing schools in a metropolitan city. The questionnaire was developed based on the international patient safety guideline.

Results: The mean item score of knowledge of nursing students on patient safety guideline was 7.68 out of 16 point (48%, correct answer rate) and the average of competency was 3.85 out of 5 point. There were statistically significant differences in knowledge and competency on patient safety guideline according to gender, educational system, grades, satisfaction with major or clinical practice, or experience of patient safety education or patient safety campaign. There was a significant positive correlation between knowledge and competency on patient safety guideline.

Conclusion: The level of knowledge of patient safety was relatively low and competency was at moderate level. This study suggests that there is a need to educate nursing students on patient safety guideline systematically. This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-0024922)