Patient safety: where is nursing education?

Abstract

Patient safety is receiving unprecedented attention among clinicians, researchers, and managers in health care systems. In particular, the focus is on the magnitude of systems-based errors and the urgency to identify and prevent these errors. In this new era of patient safety, attending to errors, adverse events, and near misses warrants consideration of both active (individual) and latent (system) errors. However, it is the exclusive focus on individual errors, and not system errors, that is of concern regarding nursing education and patient safety. Educators are encouraged to engage in a culture shift whereby student error is considered from an education systems perspective. Educators and schools are challenged to look within and systematically review how program structures and processes may be contributing to student error and undermining patient safety. Under the rubric of patient safety, the authors also encourage educators to address discontinuities between the educational and practice sectors.