Patient Safety Morning Report: Innovation in Teaching Core Patient Safety Principles to Third-Year Medical Students

Patient safety (PS) is one of the most important priorities in modern healthcare systems. Unfortunately, PS education is limited in many medical school curricula. Our objective was to implement an innovative curriculum to introduce third-year medical students on their pediatric clerkship to PS concepts and domains, and to provide a safe environment to discuss lapses in PS that they identified while caring for patients.

At the start of the pediatric clerkship, students were introduced to the curriculum, instructed to identify a lapse of PS, and to submit a description and analysis of the lapse using the SAFE framework (S = Safety concern, A = Action taken, F = Failure, linked to safety domains, E = Effects on patient outcome). Two sessions, 90-mins each, were conducted every clerkship during which there was a brief didactic presentation, each student presented their case, and the case discussed by students and faculty.

Over 19 months, 75 students participated. The most common PS themes identified were Communication (57% of cases), Human factors (39%), and System issues (37%). Anonymous written feedback was obtained; learners reported improved knowledge and ability to identify lapses in PS and to propose potential solutions to prevent similar future events. They expressed a desire for additional PS and quality improvement education.

Our results show that third-year medical students are able to identify lapses in PS and able to propose solutions. This aligns with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) goals of entrustable professional activities (EPA) 13. We intend to expand the curriculum to other third-year core clerkships.