How Should Surgical Residents Be Educated About Patient Safety

How Should Surgical Residents Be Educated About Patient Safety in the Operating Room: a Pilot Randomized Trial

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of two methods, safety curriculum in addition to online training alone, for teaching patient safety to surgery residents. Despite multiple studies evaluating educational safety curricula, the best methods for teaching residents about patient safety is unknown. It is hypothesized that empowering surgery residents to actively engage in behaviors to increase patient safety may lead to a higher quality perioperative care and communication.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Medical Education; Patient Safety; Educational Safety Curriculum; Surgical Resident
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Education - BIPS course; Behavioral: Formal safety curriculum; Behavioral: Ongoing evaluation and feedback

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 58
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years to 40 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All surgery residents at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, from post-graduate year (PGY)-1 to PGY-5.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-surgery residents at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Online training; Residents randomized to the control group will only participate in the Breakthroughs in Patient Safety (BIPS) online training (Education - BIPS course). All residents in the comparison arm will receive evaluations on their non-technical skills, but the results will not be fed back to them until after the study has been completed.	Behavioral: Education - BIPS course; The guiding principles behind the BIPS program include: (1) explaining how complex systems cause human error and how human error can lead to patient harm in complex systems; (2) diagnosing human error and identifying a prevention behavior for each of the three types: skill, rule, and knowledge; and (3) preventing error by promoting safety behaviors, such as having attention to detail, communicating clearly, having a questioning attitude, and speaking up for safety
Experimental: Online training & Safety curriculum & Evaluation and feedback; Those in the intervention group will participate in a formal safety education curriculum in addition to the currently required Breakthroughs in Patient Safety (BIPS) online training. The intervention will have three components: (1) the mandatory online BIPS course (Education - BIPS course), (2) the formal safety curriculum, and (3) ongoing evaluation and feedback of operating room performance.	Behavioral: Education - BIPS course; The guiding principles behind the BIPS program include: (1) explaining how complex systems cause human error and how human error can lead to patient harm in complex systems; (2) diagnosing human error and identifying a prevention behavior for each of the three types: skill, rule, and knowledge; and (3) preventing error by promoting safety behaviors, such as having attention to detail, communicating clearly, having a questioning attitude, and speaking up for safety; Behavioral: Formal safety curriculum; The educational program is designed to improve patient safety by informing residents about safe operating room behaviors.; Behavioral: Ongoing evaluation and feedback; The feedback program is designed to encourage the use of safe behaviors and to discourage unsafe behaviors taught in the workshops.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Changes in safety culture as measured by the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ)	Baseline, One year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Learner satisfaction, knowledge, and behaviors as measured by the Oxford Non-Technical Skills (NOTECHS) system	One year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 23, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 27, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): March 30, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 30, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 26, 2017
• Last Verified: October 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: HSC-MS-14-0073