Patient safety competencies in undergraduate nursing students: a rapid evidence assessment

Abstract

Aims: To identify patient safety competencies, and determine the clinical learning environments that facilitate the development of patient safety competencies in nursing students.

Background: Patient safety in nursing education is of key importance for health professional environments, settings and care systems. To be effective, safe nursing practice requires a good integration between increasing knowledge and the different clinical practice settings. Nurse educators have the responsibility to develop effective learning processes and ensure patient safety.

Design: Rapid Evidence Assessment.

Data sources: MEDLINE, CINAHL, SCOPUS and ERIC were searched, yielding 500 citations published between 1 January 2004-30 September 2014.

Review methods: Following the Rapid Evidence Assessment process, 17 studies were included in this review. Hawker's (2002) quality assessment tool was used to assess the quality of the selected studies.

Results: Undergraduate nursing students need to develop competencies to ensure patient safety. The quality of the pedagogical atmosphere in the clinical setting has an important impact on the students' overall level of competence. Active student engagement in clinical processes stimulates their critical reasoning, improves interpersonal communication and facilitates adequate supervision and feedback.

Conclusion: Few studies describe the nursing students' patient safety competencies and exactly what they need to learn. In addition, studies describe only briefly which clinical learning environments facilitate the development of patient safety competencies in nursing students. Further research is needed to identify additional pedagogical strategies and the specific characteristics of the clinical learning environments that encourage the development of nursing students' patient safety competencies.

Keywords: clinical learning; clinical setting; competency; nursing education; nursing student; patient safety.