Nursing technicians' professional training in patient safety: A mixed-methods study.

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 safe patient care.
• Current nursing technician curricula may not adequately address patient safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the training of nursing technicians concerning patient safety.
• To evaluate professors' understanding and application of patient safety in nursing education.
• To assess student knowledge of patient safety terms within their training.

Main Methods:

• Convergent parallel mixed-methods study in three Brazilian technical colleges.
• Qualitative phase: Semi-structured interviews with 24 professors, followed by thematic analysis.
• Quantitative phase: Survey of 84 students using a patient safety terms screening instrument.

Main Results:

• Professors' understanding and application of patient safety varied.
• Identification of patient safety terms in the theoretical-practical context was higher in Courses A and C (78.3% and 54.3%).
• Course B showed a predominance of theoretical teaching for patient safety (56.5%).

Conclusions:

• Nursing technician training in Brazil is predominantly technical, with patient safety issues not fully integrated.
• There is a need to enhance the teaching-learning process regarding patient safety.
• Addressing patient safety in nursing technician training poses a challenge for institutions and educators.