Planning and implementing a systems-based patient safety curriculum in medical education.
Thompson DA, Cowan J, Holzmueller CG, et al. Planning and implementing a systems-based patient safety curriculum in medical education. Am J Med Qual. 2008;23(4):271-8. doi:10.1177/1062860608317763.
Medical students are frequently exposed to medical errors, but as yet, formal training in patient safety has not been integrated into medical education. This article reports on the development of a patient safety curriculum for first-year medical students. The process of developing the curriculum and its core components, which included having students shadow ICU nurses and also conduct a root cause analysis of an error, are described in detail. The curriculum was well-received by students and was effective in helping them understand systems approaches to analyzing adverse events.