Patient Safety Awareness among Future Health Professionals in a Pakistani Medical College of Military Set-up

Objective: To assess the awareness among undergraduate medical students towards patient safety in a medical school of the military set up in Pakistan. Methods: "Attitudes toward Patient Safety Questionnaire III" was used to assess awareness of MBBS students regarding patient safety. The questionnaire on 7 points Likert scale was administered to MBBS students of the fourth and final year during their clinical rotation at "The CMH Lahore Medical College and Institute of Dentistry" in 2019. Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 was used for the analysis of data. Results: The questionnaire was filled by 166 participants, yielding a response rate of 80%. The two out of nine domains regarding "teamwork" and "long working hours" scored the highest 6.0 mean score. "Disclosure responsibility" scored lowest 4.4 mean score followed by domain regarding "Professional incompetence" 4.5 and "Error inevitability" 4.7. Domain about the integration of this emerging issue in the curriculum scored 5.5. The mean scores of items showed no significant difference with respect to their academic levels and gender. Conclusion: Students showed an interest in patient safety. Most of them supported the integration of this important issue in an undergraduate medical curriculum. However, there was a knowledge gap among students regarding the causes and disclosure of medical errors. Due to insufficient awareness among future doctors, the inclusion of the formal patient safety curriculum and its early integration from the beginning of medical education is imperative.