How do we educate medical students interprofessionally about patient safety? A scoping review

Abstract

Medical education has an important role in developing attitudes, behaviors and cultures that support safe care. Increasingly, however, research has argued for a more interprofessional approach to be taken. This scoping review examines the design and impact of interprofessional education interventions involving medical students that focus on patient safety. We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and CINAHL between January 2000 and November 2019. Studies were eligible if they included medical students and at least one other profession, interactive learning, a strong emphasis on patient safety in the learning objectives, and an empirical method of evaluation. Forty-three studies met these criteria and the diverse range of approaches to intervention design and method of evaluation are detailed in this review. We found that interprofessional patient safety education interventions are generally well received by students with knowledge and skill gain documented; several also reported changes in student behaviour. However, the lack of empirically driven study designs, combined with the lack of rigour when reporting, makes it difficult to draw clear comparisons. Future research should address this, and in particular, report how and why the intervention has been designed to be delivered interprofessionally.