Nursing students' patient safety competencies in the classroom and clinical settings: a cross-sectional study

Patient safety is one of the critical indicators of providing qualified and high-quality health care services. Determining nursing students' patient safety competencies will significantly contribute to the literature. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate Iranian nursing students' patient safety competencies in classroom and clinical settings.

In this cross-sectional study data were collected from 215 nursing of a university of medical sciences between February and May 2022, using a general questionnaire form and the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey. Data analysis was done using descriptive and analytical statistics such as percentage, mean and paired-samples t-test.

The mean scores of nursing students' the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey were 3.50 ± 0.55 in the classroom and 3.45 ± 0.57 in the clinical setting. The highest mean scores of nursing students were in subdimension of "clinical safety" in both the clinical (3.91 ± 1.13) and classroom settings (3.91 ± 0.78). In addition, a statistically significant difference was found in patient safety learning confidence in the classroom versus clinical setting in the "culture of safety" subdimension.

It appears that current educational programs provide opportunities to improve nursing students' patient safety, but they are not enough. Nurse educators should apply new teaching methods and evaluate clinical strategies to meet educational needs.