Patient safety education for undergraduate medical students

The authors of an article published in BMC Medical Education conducted a survey of the medical literature related to patient safety education in the medical curriculum of medical schools.


The article notes that there are only a few relevant published studies on the inclusion of patient safety education in the undergraduate curriculum in medical schools either as a selective course, a lecture program, or by being integrated into the existing curriculum.  The search included developed countries with advanced health and education systems. 


It is clear that the integration of patient safety education into the existing curriculum in medical schools internationally, provides significant challenges and needs.

Medical students benefit from learning about patient safety in an interprofessional team

An article published in Medical Education by 

Elizabeth Anderson, 

Lucy Thorpe, 

David Heney and 

Stewart Petersen describes how d

elivering patient safety education interprofessionally heightens students’ awareness of the importance of effective team-working for safe care and care delivery.  This is not something that is routinely taught in either medical schools or in post-graduate training programs.  The authors conclude that designing a a workshop on team-based patient safety towards the end of medical education can enable students to assimilate all aspects of their curriculum relevant to safety. Students learn that there is a link between team factors and safety and this is increased when students learn interprofessionally.