Medical errors education for students of surgery: a pilot study revealing the need for action

Medical errors training is an important yet often overlooked aspect of surgical education. In response to a perceived deficiency in medical errors training at our institution, we implemented an educational session on medical errors concepts for the benefit of rotating medical students.

Medical students completed the same 12-question test before and after the 90-minute educational session. Pretest and posttest scores were compared for evidence of enhanced understanding. No personal identifiers were used, and students were provided unlimited time to complete the tests. Six groups of medical students (who ranged from 5 to 8 students per session) completed the educational session. All sessions were moderated by the same surgical resident and attending surgeon, who used a standard slide presentation. Test scores were analyzed with SPSS statistical software (version 14.0; SPSS Inc., Cary, NC), which employed the paired samples t-test (alpha = 0.05).

Test scores increased significantly from a pretest mean of 27.3% correct (3.28 of 12 possible, SD = 1.57) to a mean posttest score of 70.1% (8.41, SD = 1.52) (p < 0.001).

This retrospective pilot study demonstrated that a brief educational intervention led to statistically significant improved performance on a general understanding of medical errors. The study also revealed the dearth of baseline knowledge in our participating medical students on the subject. We believe that these results underscore the need for action in providing improved and ongoing education in medical errors concepts to enhance medical student awareness and proactive handling of medical errors.