Patient safety in nursing technician training

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Training

Background:

• Patient safety is a critical component of healthcare quality.
• Effective training for nursing technicians is essential for implementing safety protocols.
• Gaps in current curricula can lead to suboptimal patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze patient safety content within nursing technician training programs.
• To identify the extent and comprehensiveness of patient safety education in technical nursing courses.
• To evaluate alignment with international patient safety guidelines.

Main Methods:

• A documentary study was conducted.
• Three technical nursing courses at a public university in northeastern Brazil were analyzed.
• The World Health Organization's Multi-Professional Patient Safety Curriculum Guide served as a reference.

Main Results:

• Patient safety terms were present in a majority of subjects across the analyzed courses.
• Medication safety (22.6%) and infection prevention and control (20%) were the most frequently addressed topics.
• The integration of patient safety content was inconsistent, with some subjects lacking focus.

Conclusions:

• Significant gaps exist in the patient safety content of nursing technician training.
• Patient safety education is primarily confined to course syllabi and discipline plans.
• There is a need for more comprehensive and integrated patient safety curricula.