Patient safety awareness among undergraduate medical students in Pakistani Medical School

Objective: To measure the level of awareness of patient safety among undergraduate medical students in Pakistani Medical School and to find the difference with respect to gender and prior experience with medical error

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Lahore [UOL], Pakistan from January to March 2017, and comprised final year medical students. Data was collected using a questionnaire 'APSQ- III' on 7 point Likert scale. Eight questions were reverse coded. Survey was anonymous. SPSS package 20 was used for statistical analysis

Results: Questionnaire was filled by 122 students, with 81% response rate. The best score 6.17 was given for the 'team functioning', followed by 6.04 for 'long working hours as a cause of medical error'. The domains regarding involvement of patient, confidence to report medical errors and role of training and learning on patient safety scored high in the agreed range of >5. Reverse coded questions about 'professional incompetence as an error cause' and 'disclosure of errors' showed negative perception. No significant differences of perceptions were found with respect to gender and prior experience with medical error [p= >0.05]

Conclusion: Undergraduate medical students at UOL had a positive attitude towards patient safety. However, there were misconceptions about error disclosure among students and patient safety education needs to be incorporated in medical curriculum of Pakistan

Building a culture of research: focus group discussion

Background: Medical curriculum should be enabled to train students in research but focus in this regard is much lacking. This study was designed to explore the perception of final year medical students regarding pre-requisites of a research culture at the level of institute, faculty and leadership

Methods: A focus group discussion with two mini groups [male and female group], each consisting of 6 members and supervised by an experienced moderator was conducted. The study comprised of discussion lasting for 90 minutes. Firstly, opinions of students were gathered and coded, then it was followed by conversion of their statements into themes and interpretation of results

Results: Discussion on institutional factors, role of faculty and importance of leadership was carried out and numerous themes were identified. Among institutional factors, themes of curriculum and funding were revealed. Regarding the role of faculty, themes of motivation, skill learning and mentor-mentee ratio were highlighted and while discussing the fundamental role of leadership, need of a role model, who must be a flexible leader was emphasized

Conclusion: Institutes should support a curriculum with early exposure to research, along with hiring of supportive, research oriented faculty who can prove to be the role model and flexible research leader