Psychometric evaluation of WHO patient safety questionnaire for measuring the knowledge and attitude to human error among medical students of Tabriz University of medical sciences

Abstract

Introduction and goal: one of the factors that play an effective role in improving the level of patient safety in health care centers is the teaching of patient safety strategies to students of the department of medical sciences by faculty members and clinical trainers. Training is necessary for developing necessary changes in order to reduce errors, enhance safety and improve the quality of health care. This study was conducted with the aim of psychometric evaluation of human error and patient safety questionnaire of WHO in Iran and evaluates the knowledge and attitude of Tabriz medical students towards human error and patient safety. Methods and Materials: this is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted among general medical students of the internship and externship courses of Tabriz University of medical sciences. First, translation and re-translation of the WHO questionnaire was done by two translators fluent in English and the original language, and it was finalized in terms of compatibility with the original text and fluency. Further, the content validity of the questionnaire was conducted based on the CVI and CVR indexes through a survey of the panel of experts, finally, the reliability of the questionnaire was determined by test re-test method and Cranach’s alpha. The sample size for evaluating students using psychometric questionnaire was 201 people. It was calculated that with% 10 attrition, the final sample size was 225 people. The data obtained from the questionnaire completed by the students were entered into statistical software and analyzed by relevant tests (Cronbach’s alpha index to calculate the reliability of the questionnaire, determination of the Pearson’s correlation coefficient, T-Test, etc.). Findings: the average age of the students participating in the study is 24-35 with the standard deviation of 1.8, 51.6% of the participants are male and 48.4% of participants are female. Based on the CVI and VCR values, the content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. The range of Cronbach’s alpha of different areas of the questionnaire was from 0.827 to 0.997 and its value for the whole questionnaire was 0.765, which shows that the items of the questionnaire have high internal consistency in all the measures dimensions. The results showed that the level of student's awareness of human error and patient safety and the factors that cause human error is average, and the level of student's attitude towards reporting human errors and complications caused by errors, as well as safety in heal care centers were evaluated as good.

The results of Pearson’s correlation test indicate that there is no significant relationship between students’ awareness of patient safety and their age. (P-value> 0.05) According to the amount (p-value=0.44), there is no significant relationship between the attitude of students towards patient safety and their age. According to the Pearson correlation coefficient, which is 0.09 there is a weak correlation between the age of the students and their awareness of patient safety. Conclusion: based on the results obtained in this study , the Persian version of the WHO patient safety questionnaire is suitable tool with acceptable validity and reliability and can be used to evaluate the awareness and attitude of medical students and employees working in Iranian hospitals towards patient safety and human error. Also, the findings show that the necessity of implementing a codified training program in the academic course of medical students is felt with the aim of increasing their knowledge and attitudes towards patient safety and medical errors and improving patient safety and reducing human errors.