Improving Safety Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes With a Good Catch Program and Student-Designed Simulation

This quality improvement project aimed to increase undergraduate nursing students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) relevant to the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses competency of safety, which was identified as a critical performance area. The question that this project examined was, Can incorporating chosen interventions into the course curriculum increase student KSAs of safety?

Two interventions were incorporated into the curriculum to increase student competency: a student-designed simulation project (SDSP), and a Good Catch and Error Reporting (GCER) program. A nonintervention group (n = 16) and an intervention group (n = 33) were evaluated with a dependent sample t test (pre- and posttest design) using the QUISKA2 Assessment Tool.

For the intervention group (n = 33), the project interventions were found to be statistically significant t(32) = 6.14, p < .05. In addition, mean scores increased by 37%, whereas the nonintervention group increased by only 12%.

The SDSP and GCER program were beneficial in improving students' KSAs regarding safety in health care. Students designed scenarios that addressed medication errors, critical team communication, prioritization, and handoff reporting using their own creativity to deliver valuable information to the entire clinical group. Implementing the GCER program helped create a culture of safety within this clinical section and helped to build student confidence in the quality improvement process. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(6):379-384.].