Using simulation to teach patient safety behaviors in undergraduate nursing education

The purpose of this article is to describe how our college of nursing began to integrate patient safety instruction into simulation experiences for undergraduate nursing students. A system for evaluating and grading students was developed. Data on student safety behaviors were collected before and after implementation of instruction designed to improve adherence to hand washing and patient identification procedures. In the first semester in which data were collected, students did not demonstrate satisfactory performance of either hand hygiene or patient identification 61% of the time. After instruction, students still did not perform these procedures consistently 38% of the time. Lessons learned and future plans for addressing these problems with basic patient safety behaviors are discussed.