Patient safety in undergraduate medical education: Implementation of the topic in the anaesthesiology core curriculum at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Abstract

Introduction: The focus of public attention and health policy is increasingly being drawn to patient safety. According to studies, more than 30,000 patients die each year as a result of medical errors. To date, learning objectives such as patient safety have not played a role in the core curriculum for medical education in Germany. The National Competence-Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Undergraduate Medical Education contains a total of 13 learning objectives relating to this subject.Methods: In a descriptive study, learning content was implemented within the “Operative Medicine” study block offered by the Faculty of Medicine at Universität Hamburg. The definition and occurrence of errors as well as strategies for dealing with and avoiding errors were set as the learning objectives for an interactive lecture, problem-based learning (PBL) case as well as the bedside teaching on anaesthesiology. Students were able to evaluate the lecture directly. During the simulator session on anaesthesia, the safety-relevant information that students requested from patients was compared with the questions asked by a control group in the previous trimester.Results: The topic of patient safety could be integrated into the “Operative Medicine” curriculum through a number of minor changes to classes. The accounts of personal experiences and importance assigned to the subject were considered positive, while content perceived as redundant was criticised. In the simulator, the students appeared to request more comprehensive preoperative safety-relevant information than the control group.Conclusion: The subject’s relevance, positive feedback and trend towards a change in behaviour in the simulator lead the authors to deem introduction of the topic of patient safety a success.

Keywords

• medical education
• errors
• patient safety
• anaesthesiology