The Opinions and Practices of Nursing Students About Preoperative Patient Safety

Aim: This study was conducted to examine the opinions and practices of sophomore nursing students about preoperative patient safety. Method: This descriptive study was conducted from November 2016 to April 2017 by attendance of 219 sophomore nursing students who are practicing in the surgery departments of two university hospitals and meet the criteria of the study. For collection of data, the data collection form was used, which has been developed by the researchers in line with the literature and includes two parts. The necessary institutions and ethics committee permits were obtained before starting the research. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used for data analysis. Results: It was found out that the average age of the attending students was 20.29 +/- 1.65 (years) and 50.2% of them have chosen the profession because of high employment opportunity. It was found that, of the students, 33.8% have taken lesson for patient safety and 26.9% have participated in training events such as seminars, courses, etc. about patient safety. When the situation of carrying out the preoperative patient safety practices by them, it was found that the first three preoperative practices carried out by the students attended the study were measurement of vital signs, checking patient identification and verification of the operation site respectively. Conclusion: In this study, it was found out that the majority of students did not participate in any training program for preoperative patient safety; however, they performed some applications for patient safety. In line with these results, it can be suggested to increase the knowledge of preoperative patient safety practices by organizing training activities for patient safety and by ensuring the participation of students in these activities and comparing the information and application levels of the larger sample groups with all classes.