PATIENT SAFETY AWARENESS AMONG HEALTH-RELATED STUDENTS: AN EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Introduction: Patient safety is an important component of the healthcare system, aiming to prevent and reduce some risks, errors and harms that occur to patients during the provision of healthcare services. As future healthcare workers, students in health-related fields play very important role in ensuring patient safety. Their awareness and understanding of patient safety principles are important in creating a culture of safety that extends from education into clinical practice. Methods: This research used a cross-sectional survey designed to assess patient safety awareness among students in the healthcare fields. The methodology was designed to collect quantitative data on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the students related to patient safety and to identify factors that influenced their understanding and reporting of errors. For this research, it was developed a structured questionnaire for evaluating various aspects of patient safety awareness. Results: Spearman's rank correlation was used between the perception of the students about their education and their comfort in reporting errors is as follows: SK: 0.488, p-value: 0.0046. The correlation coefficient (0.488) shows a moderate positive correlation between the perceptions of the students for being adequately prepared by their education and their comfort in reporting errors. The p-value of 0.0046 defines the statistically significant correlation. Training is positively correlated with teamwork, communication, and involving patients in their care, suggesting that students with training recognize the importance of these factors in reducing errors. Conclusion: This research gives information about the role of education, training and practical experience for patient safety awareness among students in the health-related fields. The results showed that while most students possess basic understanding of patient safety principles, some gaps remain in their comfort with reporting errors as well as their perceptions of teamwork and communication as important components of error prevention