Abstract

Background: Patient safety (PS) is defined as the absence of preventable harm. The study aims to determine the level of awareness of PS in medical students in clinical years and compare the level of understanding between the student who took the PS curriculum and the students who did not at King Abdul-Aziz University.
Methodology: A cross-sectional study was done at King Abdulaziz University Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in February 2020. "APSQIII" questionnaire on a 7-point Likert scale was used. Data were gathered using google forms, from eligible clinical medical students from fourth to sixth year. Students who took the PS curriculum were compared with the students who did not. The analysis was done by using the Statistical Package for Social Science, version 23.0.
Results: Two hundred seventy-five medical students filled the questionnaire in their clinical years. The highest score was situational awareness, with 5.27 in student participants who took the PS module and 5.55 in the students who did not take the module. The least score in both groups was disclosure responsibility; the participant and non-participant had 3.63 and 3.79, respectively. Revectored questions in disclosure responsibility had a negative attitude. No significant difference was found with medical error (p = > 0.05).
Conclusion: This study showed that the clinical years medical students had a positive attitude toward PS. However, these findings suggest taking the PS curriculum early in the clinical years, which would lead to discussion this topic more often during rounds and outpatient clinics that could increase the medical students' awareness of patients.

Key words: Patient safety, awareness, responsibility, curriculum, undergraduate.