Knowledge and Attitudes of Physical Therapy Students Across a Longitudinal Healthcare Systems-Focused Patient Safety Curriculum

Background: Most professions increased system-focused safety competencies after the release of the Institute of Medicine reports on errors, patient safety, and core competencies for health professions beginning in 1999. The physical therapy profession remained focused on individual safety, driven by accreditation requirements.

Purpose: To describe change in the knowledge and attitudes Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students following a longitudinal system-focused patient safety curriculum and 22 weeks of clinical education.

Methods: Nine sessions of systems-focused patient safety discipline-specific and interprofessional curricular content. Knowledge/attitude change assessed via a modified Attitudes of Patient Safety Questionnaire (APSQ-III) and culture and professional questions from the Patient Safety Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge Scale (PS-ASK) questionnaire.

Results: There was a 100% and 97% survey response rate to pre and post surveys, respectively. Statistically significant changes in the mean response pre to post-survey were found for four of nine APSQ-III subscales. Eighteen of the 25 APSQ-III questions improved towards the desired direction, while 2 remained unchanged at 100%. Culture-focused attitude questions on the PS-ASK remained very low or did not change.

Conclusion: Student knowledge and attitudes improved in several important domains of patient safety including patient safety training, situational awareness, role of provider competence, and disclosure responsibility. Challenges remain in understanding professional responsibility and healthcare culture and its connection to error.