Developing a culture of safety: Exploring students' perceptions of errors in an interprofessional setting

Healthcare has a long tradition of silence around mistakes that cause or have the potential to cause harm to a patient, and there is evidence that this culture may be present from the beginning of a health professional's training. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine a team of interprofessional students' interactions with a preceptor in a simulation environment. The debriefing explored the students' reactions and assisted them with how to manage similar situations in the future to improve patient safety. The results showed that the students felt powerless to stop the simulated preceptor from doing harm to the patient, or to even question the preceptor's unsafe actions. Recommendations for educators include incorporating discussions and interprofessional training about handling mistakes into the curriculum, in the context of patient safety.