An Inpatient Patient Safety Curriculum for Pediatric Residents

Patient safety is recognized as an important part of pediatric resident education. There is a lack of published safety curricula targeting pediatric residents. A local needs assessment showed that while residents felt safety was an important part of their current and future jobs, they did not feel prepared to apply safety principles to their future careers or participate in a root cause analysis (RCA).

This curriculum was delivered to senior-level pediatric and multiple-board residents during five monthly, hour-long, multidisciplinary sessions. Sessions covered systems-based thinking, terminology, the second victim phenomenon, RCA, and medication errors, while providing feedback on recent event reports filed by residents. Resident knowledge, attitudes, and reporting behavior were evaluated prior to and following the curriculum.

Attendees showed statistically significant improved safety attitudes and preparedness to apply safety to their future endeavors; conversely, there were no significant changes in nonattendees. There were no significant changes in knowledge scores or event reporting. Answers to qualitative questions identified learning about the reporting process, RCAs, and follow-up on filed event reports as valuable parts of the curriculum. Residents desired more time to debrief about safety events.

The curriculum succeeded in engaging residents in patient safety and making them feel prepared for future practice. Residents showed a dissonance between their intentions to report and their actual reporting behaviors, the reasons for which require further exploration. Residents desired a forum to deal with the emotions involved in errors. This curriculum is easily transferable to other institutions with minor modifications.