Maximizing student potential: Lessons for pharmacy programs from the patient safety movement.

Area of Science:

• Educational Science
• Healthcare Management
• Systems Thinking

Background:

• Higher education institutions (HEIs) face pressure to create student-centered learning. The healthcare industry has focused on patient safety to reduce harm.
• Both HEIs and healthcare are complex sociotechnical systems with structures, processes, and outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore parallels between HEIs and healthcare.
• To illustrate how patient safety concepts can be adapted to enhance educational structures, processes, and outcomes in HEIs.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of HEIs and healthcare organizations as sociotechnical systems.
• Identification of transferable concepts from the patient safety movement.

Main Results:

• Patient safety gaps in healthcare are often system defects, not individual errors.
• Systems frameworks (structure, process, outcomes) are applicable to both sectors.
• Healthcare's patient safety strategies offer a model for improving HEI learning environments.

Conclusions:

• Adapting patient safety frameworks can enhance educational structures and processes in HEIs.
• Cross-domain learning from healthcare can lead to improved student learning outcomes.
• Systems thinking is crucial for addressing challenges in both education and healthcare.