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Teaching clinical reasoning to medical students is a key strategy for reducing diagnostic errors. This paper describes a new longitudinal clinical reasoning curriculum taught in a US medical school’s first and second year of medical training. Students reported high self-efficacy after completing the curriculum; however, a competency audit revealed room for improvement in including system-related aspects of care.

Several factors contribute to the increased risk of prescribing errors for children, including weight-based dosing and drug formulation. This quality improvement project in one pediatric emergency department identified four key drivers and implemented four interventions to reduce errors. Prescribing errors were reduced across three plan-do-study-act cycles, and improvements were maintained six months after the final cycle.

Telehealth is increasingly used to connect rural hospitals with specialists in other areas and can improve patient outcomes. This study found that in situ simulation training in rural emergency departments resulted in small increases in the use of telemedicine for patients presenting with sepsis and led to improvements in sepsis process care outcomes.

Clinical reasoning is an essential component of diagnostic safety. This paper describes the development of a new curriculum to improve clinical reasoning skills and processes in medical students. The curriculum uses several educational strategies (e.g., classroom teaching, simulation training, patient encounters) during pre-clerkship and clerkship to improve clinical reasoning skills across several domains (theory, patient assessment, diagnosis, and shared decision-making).

A 2011 systematic review identified nine tools to assess patient safety competence in nurses. This review identified multiple instruments released since that review; the most frequently used was the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey (H-PEPSS). The authors suggest future research should consider including ethics in patient safety and responsiveness to change over time.

Medication prescribing errors are common, particularly during medical training. This retrospective review of prescriptions from ten general practitioners in training in the United Kingdom identified a high rate of prescribing errors (8.9% of prescriptions reviewed) and suboptimal prescribing (35%).

Disruptive behaviors are discouragingly present in health care. This commentary discusses evidence examining the impact of unprofessional behaviors on safety and clinical care. The authors suggest areas of exploration needed to design reduction efforts such as teamwork, the Safety I mindset and targeting of the root influences of impropriety.

Many aspects of crew resource management in aviation, such as the sterile cockpit, are used in healthcare to increase situational awareness (SA) and decrease human error. The situational awareness of paramedics in one US city was measured before and after receiving a targeted educational program on situational awareness. There was a statistically significant increase in SA following the intervention, although additional research is needed with larger cohorts.

In 2019, a consensus group identified twelve competencies to improve diagnostic education. This article details next steps for incorporating competencies into interprofessional health education: 1) Developing a shared, common language for diagnosis, 2) developing the necessary content, 3) developing assessment tools, 4) promoting faculty development, and 5) spreading awareness of the need to improve education in regard to diagnosis.

Residents and trainees frequently report experiencing bullying and disrespectful behaviors in the workplace. This study explored the relationship between resident psychological safety, perceived organizational support, and humiliation. Results indicate resident perception of increased organizational support (e.g., help is available when they have a problem) reduces the negative impact of humiliation on their psychological safety.

Healthcare staff use a variety of skills to implement quality improvement and patient safety initiatives. Using case studies and qualitative interviews, this study outlines six “socio-organisational functional and facilitative tasks” (SOFFTs) necessary to successful implementation of quality improvement initiatives. Findings highlight the importance of technical skills as well as relational skills, training and education, and the ability to consider local context.

In situ simulations are an effective method to identify latent safety threats (LST). Seventy-four in situ cardiac arrest simulations were conducted in one hospital, identifying 106 unique LSTs. Four LSTs were deemed imminent safety threats and were immediately resolved following debrief; another 15 were prioritized as high-risk.

Improving student and resident education and involvement in quality improvement and patient safety is a goal of graduate medical education. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University developed a simulation-based medical education curriculum for multidisciplinary residents and fellows. The pilot cohort reported significantly improved reactions, attitudes and confidence, and knowledge and skills.