Joyce C P Chan, Dion S Y Leung, Diana Y C Tsang, Carol W Y Chan, Lisa P L Low and Frederick K K Yeung
Statement of the Problem: Patient safety is to prevent harm from being done to the patients and should be reinforced in every aspect of nursing care, skills and knowledge and procedural guidelines. As part of the nursing students training, patient safety is a critical notion that is taught in the first lesson and must be set as a priority during patient care. Yet, the literature continues to highlight the need to heighten understanding of teaching methods used to enhance students learning about patient safety and to strengthen the way patient safety is taught in the nursing curriculum to ensure safe patient care. This presentation will present the clinical teachers views of incidents encountered and how they handled them in the clinical settings.
Methodology: A qualitative methodology using focus group interviews composing of 20 clinical teachers were conducted by providing incidents that had occurred among junior nursing students during the clinical practicum.
Findings: Clinical teachers actively spoke about their views of the incidents and strategies they used to handle them. A major aspect of patient safety relates to how nursing students view near misses or actual incidents.
Conclusion & Significance: Given the urgency in the clinical settings in which these incidents are managed, strategies proposed should be realistic and practical. The ideas about creating a safety culture in an organization where workers need not fear reporting or identifying mishaps is a commitment for promoting patient safety. Using such incidents as teaching tool and not perceiving them as negative occurrences can be considered. In this way, clinical practicum may be improved for clinical teachers and nursing students.
