| Learning Objective #1: Enhance collaboration among health care professions through interdisciplinary education in patient safety | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Create a culture of patient safety |
DESIGN The University of Mississippi School of Nursing undertook research methodologies to have a clearer understanding of medication error reporting and instituted a series of statewide interdisciplinary educational sessions.
CONCEPT All health care disciplines share a common and primary commitment to serving the patient and working toward the ideal of patient safety for all. While each discipline has its own focus, the scope of patient safety mandates that health professionals work collaboratively to abate these problems. It was unknown as to whether in Mississippi, USA, the low incidence of medical errors was due to poor reporting mechanisms or due to the punitiveness of the reporting system.
POPULATION/SETTING The University of Mississippi School of Nursing, partnered with the School of Medicine, and other state universities in implementing 2 six hour interdisciplinary workshops for advanced practice nurses and medical students and community nurses and physicians.
METHODOLOGY The project used a multidisciplinary group of faculty to present didactic content integrating case studies as appropriate. A post workshop web-based instructional methodology enhanced learning. Interdisciplinary groups were used to foster communication between the advanced nursing practice students and the medical students.
EVALUATION The evaluation methods included both short-term and long-term measures and open-end questions asking participants to address how the workshop assisted them creating a “culture of patient safety” by examining the change in their perceptions relative to patient safety in their respective institutions and what changes had been implemented related to patient safety.
FINDINGS Differences and similarities among the disciplines evaluations will be reported.
IMPLICATIONS Evaluating the 2-day workshops on patient safety provided information for program refinement and insights on the differences seen among the various disciplines.