Patient safety knowledge attitudes and practices among pharmacy students in Nigeria

Despite increasing integration of patient safety concepts into pharmacy curricula globally, evidence on students’ knowledge and attitudinal orientation toward patient safety practices remains scarce in Nigeria. This study assessed pharmacy students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward patient safety practices at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 308 penultimate-year Doctor of Pharmacy students using a validated self-administered questionnaire. Knowledge and attitude composite scores were generated by summing individual item scores and categorised using median-based cut-offs. Associations were assessed using chi-square tests, and regression analyses. Most respondents were female 205 (66.6%) and aged 21–25 years 217 (71.1%). The highest correct knowledge response was recorded for prevention of errors and adverse effects 307 (99.7%), while the highest attitude mean was observed for enhancing patient safety through verbal and nonverbal communication (4.42 ± 0.82). Overall, 213 (69.2%) respondents had high knowledge and 158 (51.3%) held favourable attitudes. Linear regression analysis showed that higher knowledge scores significantly predicted more favourable attitudes (β = 3.546, p < 0.001), whereas respondents aged >30 years had significantly less favourable attitudes compared with those aged 21–25 years (β = −17.594, p = 0.036). Although pharmacy students demonstrated generally high knowledge of patient safety, this did not uniformly translate into favourable attitudes. Higher knowledge was associated with more favourable attitudes, whereas students aged >30 years demonstrated less favourable attitudes. Curricula should embed safety culture reasoning and reporting norms to bridge the knowledge–attitude gap.