Measuring Patient Safety Competence Among Nursing Students in the Classroom and Clinical Settings

Little is known of the extent to which patient safety (PS) education is addressed in nursing curricula in the classroom and clinical settings in Jordan.

An Arabic version of the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey was administered to a convenience sample of 297 nursing students from two governmental universities in Jordan.

Nursing students were moderately satisfied about their knowledge and competencies regarding most PS dimensions; they also had more confidence about the knowledge and competencies they learned in the classroom than during the clinical training. Students in their advanced year had lower confidence about their PS knowledge and competencies than students in the earlier years.

The study suggests the need to close the gap between theory and practice in the nursing curriculum. The adoption of a comprehensive framework that integrates PS knowledge and competencies is recommended.