Patient Safety and Medical Errors in Nursing Education: Learning by Doing and Experiencing With Simulated Patients

Plain-language summary

This research will be conducted with the aim of enabling first year nursing students to learn about patient safety and medical errors through simulated patient education. Students will participate in the theoretical and practical laboratory work of the Fundamentals of Nursing course during the spring semester of 2025-2026. The research will be implemented after the laboratory applications. This research will evaluate the impact of simulated patient education on the outcomes of first-year students' patient safety goals ('Correct identification of patients', 'Ensuring medication safety', 'Reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections' and 'Reducing the risk of patient harm from falls'). The researchers have developed six scenarios related to patient safety and medical errors. The research will be conducted in a randomised controlled experimental design (n=62). First-year nursing students will be administered the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Scale (pre-test), the Medical Error Tendency Scale (pre-test), and a knowledge test (pre-test). Students will be randomised into experimental and control groups based on their knowledge test (pre-test) mean scores. After all students in the experimental and control groups have completed the educator-centred theoretical and laboratory applications, the study will proceed to the application phase. First, those in the experimental group will participate in scenario applications (first and second scenarios) to gain experience with simulated patients. The first scenario covers applications related to the objectives of 'correct identification of patients' and 'ensuring medication safety'. The second scenario covers applications related to the objectives of 'reducing the risks associated with falls' and 'reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections'. One week after the simulation, the experimental group will undergo psychomotor skill assessment related to patient safety on a simulated patient, and the control group will undergo psychomotor skill assessment on a low-fidelity manikin using control ists (first skill assessment). Subsequently, all students will undergo the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Scale (post-test), the Medical Error Tendency Scale (post-test), and a knowledge test (post test). Eight weeks later, psychomotor skill assessments (second skill assessment) using control lists, the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation Scale (follow up-test), the Medical Error Tendency Scale (follow-up test), and the knowledge test (follow-up test) will be administered again using the same method. The third and fourth scenarios will be used in the first psychomotor skill assessment exam that the experimental and control groups will take. The third scenario includes skills related to the objectives of 'verifying patient identity' and 'ensuring medication safety'. The fourth scenario includes skills related to the objectives of 'reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections' and 'reducing the risks associated with falls'. The fifth and sixth scenarios will be used in the second psychomotor skills assessment exam for the experimental and control groups. The fifth scenario includes skills related to the objectives of 'verifying patient identity' and 'ensuring medication safety'. The sixth scenario includes skills related to the objectives of 'reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infections' and 'reducing the risks associated with falls'.

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