Patient Safety Essay

Patient safety is a necessary and vital component of quality care as well as a high priority issue for health services, globally. Over the course of the past several years, major ongoing efforts have been made by policymakers and healthcare providers to improve patients’ safety [1]. Notwithstanding the existence of substantial information regarding how to improve patients care, most health care professionals are not appropriately educated in patient safety [2]. Improving patient safety mostly depends on the scientific capabilities of healthcare staff. Only those staff members who have gained the required knowledge during their educational period by a correct curriculum can play an important role in the mentioned subject [3-8]. Therefore, providing

on the curriculum of nursing education in the US, concluded that some of the topics related to patient safety such as evidence-based practice, informatics and quality improvement, had not been clearly included [11]. Mansour had also concluded that the subject of patient safety had not received enough attention in Britain’s Nursing education and suggested that more effort should be put in to adhere to the level of Patient Safety that the WHO has laid down [12]. Moreover, Vaismoradi has also observed that patient safety has not yet found its true place in the curriculum of nursing education in Iran as a separate subject and that its concepts are not taught independently to the nursing students [3]. Further, Hoffman et al. believe that the subject of patient safety is weakly reflected in the academic educational programs of healthcare staff in Germany [13]. In view of the above, the extent to which healthcare students are empowered in the field of patient safety remains unclear. Needless to say, provision of educational courses in patient safety for health profession students will not only improve their capability in assisting patient safety but will also equip them to play their professional roles better [5]. Considering that the nurses as the largest group of healthcare providers are in the best position to improve patient safety, the educational preparation of nurse students during their professional education is important [9,