Patient Safety: Perception among Medical Students of Tanta Faculty of Medicine, Egypt

Background: Patient safety became a global health issue to insure high quality health care
services and with minimal medical errors. WHO developed Patient Safety Curriculum
Guide for Medical Schools to be used as a requisite in medical curricula standard.
Objectives: to assess medical students' perception as regard patient safety issues and to
find out their opinions towards its inclusion in the medical curricula. Methodology: A
descriptive cross-sectional study was executed at Tanta faculty of medicine for 3 months
using self-administered questionnaire for 5th, 6th years` students and house officers.
Students’ self-ratings of knowledge and attitude towards patient safety were measured,
and their opinion about its inclusion into curriculum was described. Results: 418
participants were included in the study, 85.2% of them had no previous training on patient
safety & 57.2% of them had an average total self-rated knowledge level. 53.1% had a
positive attitude toward patient safety, a majority agreed that patient safety is a global
problem & 86.4% of them admit that teaching patient safety issues in medical curriculum
is a priority. Conclusion: The study revealed deficient perception of medical students
regarding patient safety issues, and demonstrated the urgent need of its inclusion into
medical curricula.