Patient Safety Competency Framework (PSCF) for Nursing Students

Abstract

Competency denotes an expected standard of performance that reflects what a person knows and is able to do in a particular circumstance [1]. The knowledge and skills nursing students develop during their undergraduate studies have a direct impact on patient safety [2]. However, in Australia, the absence of a clearly articulated set of patient safety1 competency statements for nursing students has been a challenge to curriculum development, teaching and student assessment. Although the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards [3] are often currently used to inform nursing curricula, their key purpose is not educational but to support clinical governance and risk mitigation in acute care. In addition, while Standard 6 of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Registered Nurse standards for practice [4] refers to the importance of ‘providing safe, appropriate and responsive quality nursing practice’, the level of detail required for curriculum development or student assessment is limited. For these reasons a Delphi project was conducted to develop a Patient Safety Competency Framework (PSCF) for nursing students.