Self-reported patient safety competencies among Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy students in Brazil: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The difficulties health systems face in implementing measures to reduce the risk of harm in healthcare require investing in training professionals with specific patient safety competencies. To better understand the gaps in teaching these competencies, this study aimed to identify the self-reported patient safety skills, attitudes, and knowledge among healthcare students. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with Higher Education students in the last two years of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Medicine courses from fifteen federal public universities distributed across the five Brazilian regions. Data were collected from August 2023 to July 2024 using a self-administered instrument, the Health Professional Education Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS) adapted and validated in Brazil. RESULTS: A total of 368 students participated in the study, of which 34.5% lived in the Southeast and 42.6% were Nursing students. Nursing students demonstrated higher agreement with patient safety in general than Pharmacy and Medicine students. The three groups showed greater confidence in their skills, attitudes, and knowledge about clinical care aspects, such as hand hygiene and safe medication practices; and less confidence in the sociocultural aspects of patient safety, including more negative perceptions regarding the skills required for multidisciplinary teamwork, which indicates gaps in the interprofessional education of these groups. They were also afraid to report errors and adverse events, and approach teachers and superiors. CONCLUSIONS: The results enable a diagnosis of patient safety education at the higher education level in the Brazilian context, based on students’ self-reported patient safety competencies, which can support educational and health institutions in reformulating strategies to promote safe care practices.