Patient safety in an english pre-registration nursing curriculum Moira Attree * , Hannah Cooke, Ann Wakefield School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, Coupland III, Coupland Street, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom Accepted 5 September 2007 Summary This study explored patient safety in an English pre-registration nursing curriculum. The need to improve patient safety has been recognised as a key prior- ity, both nationally and internationally. Education has a crucial role in developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes that promote patient safety. However, evidence about how patient safety is addressed in healthcare professional curricula and how organisations develop safe practitioners is limited. An organisational case study identified factors affecting patient safety educa- tional provision. Content analysis revealed what aspects of patient safety featured in the formal pre-registration nursing curriculum. Interviews were conducted with students, lecturers and key education stakeholders from various levels of the edu- cational organisation, to explore their perceptions of patient safety and its location in the curriculum and practice. Patient safety was not explicit in the formal curriculum, but was included in teaching. Students reported gaining most knowledge and experience from clinical practice. The organisational culture of both education and practice was character- ised as defensive and closed, and as having an individual versus a systems approach. Findings suggest the need for clarification of the concept of patient safety, as well as revision of curricula and teaching, learning and assessment strategies in order to address patient safety explicitly.  c 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KEYWORDS Patient safety; Nursing; Curriculum Background/ literature Patient safety is defined as freedom from harm whilst receiving healthcare (DoH, 2000). Estimates of the frequency of patient safety incidents (PSI) vary from 3% to 16% of hospital admissions. The DoH (2000) estimated that 850,000 patients 1471-5953/$ - see front matter  c 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2007.09.003 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 61 275 5361/275 5333; fax: +1 61 275 7566. E-mail address: moira.attree@manchester.ac.uk Nurse Education in Practice (2008) 8, 239–248 www.elsevier.com/nepr Nurse Education in Practice