Error management training (EMT) encourages learners to make errors during training, and then engage in positive discussions about recognition of those errors. This commentary calls for increased use of EMT for surgical students and residents to promote error recovery.

Learning from mistakes is an essential component of medical and nursing education. This retrospective study examined medical errors and near-misses committed by nursing students at more than 200 prelicensure programs. Of the 1,042 errors and near-misses reported, medication errors were most common (59%). Three primary contributing factors to errors and near-miss events were identified – (1) not checking patient identification, (2) not checking a patient’s allergy status, and (3) not following the “rights” of medication administration.

Medication errors are common, especially among medical trainees. This retrospective cohort study conducted at one medical center in the Netherlands identified a high rate of errors in prescriptions written by medical students (40% of all prescriptions). The most common type of error was inadequate information in the prescription – such as not indicating the dosage form or concentration, or missing usage instructions, or omitting the weight for a pediatric patient. Findings indicate that 29% of errors would not have been intercepted and resolved by an electronic prescribing system or pharmacist.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) encourages graduate and undergraduate medical education programs to include the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) curriculum. This review summarizes the status of QIPS programs in the United States. Program length varied widely, from two simulation-based sessions to a two-year QIPS fellowship. Only a quarter of programs used a standardized, validated QIPS evaluation tool, and resident satisfaction and information retention was mixed.

Patient safety improvements must consider the complexities of care delivery to achieve lasting change. This commentary discusses recent evidence examining the effect of duty hour limit adjustments. The authors highlight challenges regarding research design on this medical education policy change and how it affects learner and patient experience. They suggest caution in applying the study conclusions. 

Medical students do not always feel competent when it comes to patient safety concepts. In this study of German medical students, most understood the importance of patient safety, though few could identify concrete patient safety topics, such as near miss events or conditions that contribute to errors. Incorporating patient safety formally into medical education could improve students’ competence in these concepts.

Black patients who experience racism from their providers report receiving lower quality of care. Black public health students were asked about racist behaviors exhibited by their healthcare providers and the impacts the behaviors had on their care. The students recommend education and accountability to reduce providers’ racist attitudes, as well as increasing the number of Black clinicians.  

Racism exacerbates health disparities and threatens patient safety. This article summarizes the relationship between structural racism and health disparities in the United States and highlights how racism impacts health care delivery and health outcomes for patients with sickle cell disease.

Training in patient safety concepts is an important element of health professional education. This article describes learning objectives on patient safety generated by experts on patient safety and medical education. These learning objectives showed high correspondence with the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide’s learning objectives.

Research with medical and surgical residents has shown they are frequently reluctant to speak up about safety and unprofessional behavior they observe. This study asked emergency medicine residents about their speaking up behaviors. Using the Speaking Up Climate (SUC)-Safe and SUC-Prof surveys, residents reported generally neutral responses to speaking up, more favorable than their medical and surgical counterparts. In line with other studies, residents were more likely to speak up about patient safety than about unprofessional behaviors.

The effectiveness of incident reporting systems is hindered by underreporting. This cohort study describes the characteristics of incident reports submitted by trainees in a large academic medical center. From October 2019 through December 2021, trainees submitted nearly 200 incident reports, primarily describing unprofessional interactions. Findings suggest that awareness and support for the online incident reporting system among trainees was high.

Research into the impact of racism on health outcomes has increased in recent years, but there has been less emphasis on ageism or the intersection of ageism and racism. This commentary highlights the ways racism (e.g., clinical algorithms), ageism (e.g., proposed measures to ration care) and the intersection of the two (increased morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 on older people of color) impacts health outcomes. Recommendations for current clinicians and health profession educators are provided.

Healthcare trainees and junior clinicians are often reluctant to speak up about safety concerns. This qualitative study found that simulation training to enhance speaking up behaviors had lasting effects among advanced care paramedics and respiratory therapists as they moved from training into practice. Respondents highlighted the importance of experience for speaking up and the benefits of high-impact simulation training.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to dramatic changes in healthcare delivery. The multi-country PRICOV-19 study evaluated how primary care practices reorganized their day-to-day work during the pandemic and the impacts on patient safety culture. This study compared training vs. non-training primary care practices and found that training practices had a stronger safety culture during the pandemic.

This survey compared factors influencing opinions about patient-safety-related behaviors among medical students and physicians compared to the general public in Australia. Respondents had significantly different opinions on several of the hypothetical patient safety scenarios used in the survey. Findings suggest that physician and medical student opinions are often influenced by cognitive dissonance, biases, and heuristics.

Proficient safety professionals are the cornerstone of effective patient safety programs. In this study, safety professionals provided insights about theoretical factors influencing the role of safety professionals in healthcare (e.g., legal regulation, organizational context, safety culture).

Obstetric and gynecologic (OB/GYN) physicians are frequently involved in malpractice lawsuits, some of which result in catastrophic payouts. This study categorized malpractice claims involving OB/GYN trainees (students, residents, and fellows) between 1986 and 2020. Cases are categorized by type of injury, patient outcome, category of error, outcome of lawsuit, and amount of settlement.