Factor analysis of nursing students' perception of patient safety education

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the factor structure of the Health Care Professionals Patient Safety Assessment Curriculum Survey (HPPSACS) when completed by a group of nursing students from one University in the UK.

Background: The quality, content and delivery of nursing education can have a significant impact on the future students' safety behaviours in clinical settings. The Health Care Professionals Patient Safety Assessment Curriculum Survey HPPSACS has been developed in the US to establish undergraduate nursing students' perceived awareness, skills, and attitudes toward patient safety education. The instrument has not been reported to be used elsewhere; therefore, some psychometric properties remain untested.

Design: Pre-registration nursing students (n=272) from three campuses of a university in East of England completed the HPPSACS in 2012. Principal component analysis was conducted to explore the factors emerging from the students' responses.

Findings: 222 students (82%) returned the questionnaires. Constraining data to a 4-factor solution explained 52% of the variance. Factors identified were: "Willingness to disclose errors", "Recognition and management of medical errors", "The Perceived interprofessional context of patient safety" and "The perceived support and understanding for improving patient safety". The overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.64, indicating moderate internal consistency of the instrument.

Limitations: Some demographical and descriptive questions on the HPPSACS instrument were modified to accommodate the participants' educational context. However, all items in the HPPSACS which were included in the factor analysis remain identical to the original tool.

Conclusion: The study offers empirical findings of how patient safety education is contextualised in the undergraduate, pre-registration nursing curriculum. Further research is required to refine and improve the overall reliability of the Health Care Professionals Patient Safety Assessment Curriculum Survey (HPPSACS' instrument).

Keywords: Attitudes; Awareness; Nursing students; Patient safety education; Skills.