Patient safety competency among nurses and nursing students: A meta-analysis

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Nursing Practice
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Gaps in patient safety competencies among healthcare professionals hinder educational advancements.
• Synthesized evidence on nurses' and nursing students' patient safety knowledge is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare self-perceived patient safety competencies between nurses and nursing students.
• To identify specific competency areas needing improvement in both groups.

Main Methods:

• A meta-analysis of 30 cross-sectional studies adhering to PRISMA 2020 guidelines.
• Utilized Patient Safety Competency Self-Assessment (PSCSE) and Health Professions Education Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS) instruments.
• Data analyzed using STATA 15, with quality assessed by the AHRQ checklist.

Main Results:

• Nurses reported lower mean patient safety competency scores (3.74) than nursing students (3.92).
• Students showed higher scores in academic settings (4.03) versus clinical settings (3.98).
• Teamwork was the lowest-scored competency for nurses; students scored lowest in identifying/responding to adverse events (academic) and teamwork (clinical).

Conclusions:

• Nurses exhibit moderate patient safety competencies, while students perceive a theory-practice gap.
• Both nurses and students report deficiencies in teamwork skills.
• Recommendations include continuous education for nurses, improved clinical training for students, and interprofessional education, though further research is needed due to study limitations.