It's never too early for patient safety education (8 October 2026)

Summary

Preventable harm continues to be a major problem in health care. The WHO estimates the global rate of patient harm is 1 in every 10 patients, and that roughly half of harm is preventable. There has been progress in improving safety over the last quarter century, but rates of patient harm remain high. One reason is that essential patient safety concepts have not been adopted as a central part of professional education and training.

We do not expect clinicians to learn anatomy or pharmacology on the job. Why do we expect patient safety can be learned that way? A principal reason for the foot dragging is inertia. Anatomy and chemistry have been the mandatory foundation for medical education for over a hundred years. Since that time, curricula have expanded, but the persistent assumption has been that well-trained, conscientious clinicians will not make errors. Systems thinking, which explains how flawed structures, policies and processes lead to errors and harm, has not been a part of that training.

By allowing this mindset to persist, we are setting up future clinicians to fail. If we want safer care, teaching about safety must play a more central role in medical education. In this paper, Albert Wu suggests that this should begin as early as possible, stretching back into pre-professional education and even grade school.