JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Patient safety is a fundamental aspect of healthcare practice across global health systems. Safe practices, which include Incident Reporting Systems (IRS), have proven valuable in preventing the recurrence of safety incidents. However, the accessibility of this tool for healthcare discipline students is not consistent, limiting their acquisition of competencies. Additionally, there is a lack of tools to familiarize students with analyzing both immediate and remote causes of safety incidents and identifying barriers to prevent their recurrence. In this context, gamification emerges as an effective strategy in healthcare education.

Objective:

The main objective of this study was to develop a patient safety IRS tailored to the specific needs of healthcare discipline students. A secondary objective was to promote incident reporting and analysis through collaborative learning among healthcare discipline students.

Methods:

Observational study involving 223 final-year students in Medicine and Nursing from universities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain (all members of the European Researchers Network working on Second Victim). The study was carried out in three phases. Phase 1 consisted of the development of the online platform and the incident registration form. For this purpose, references were taken from the systems already developed in Spain. During phase 2, students received an introductory seminar and were given access to the platform. Phase 3 ran in parallel and involved evaluation and feedback of the reports received, as well as the opportunity to submit their opinion on the process. Descriptive statistics were obtained to gain information about the incidents, and mean comparisons by groups were carried out to analyze the differences in the scores obtained.

Results:

The platform included a personal dashboard displaying submitted reports, average scores, progression, and score rankings. The final form was divided into 9 sections and 48 questions that allowed introducing data about the incident, causes and proposals about an improvement plan. A total of 105 students participated, submitting 147 reports. Incidents were mainly reported in the hospital setting, with complications of care (25.1%) and effects of medication or medical products (23.7%) being predominant. The most repeated causes were related confusion, oversight, or distractions (33.3%) and absence of process verification (29.9%). Statistically significant differences were observed between the scores received according to country, but not according to the studies enrolled. Overall, participants rated the experience of using SAFEST positively.

Conclusions:

Encouraging healthcare discipline students to report patient safety incidents from their clinical practice can boost their confidence in reporting, empowering future professionals to speak-up about safety matters. A long-term follow-up would be desirable to check the real benefits of using the tool during education. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05350345