title: Physicians-in-training attitudes on patient safety: 2003 to 2008.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  : Physician trainees will embody medicine's future culture. We assess whether trainees' patient safety attitudes have evolved over time.
  
  
  METHODS
  : We anonymously surveyed more than 800 house staff and fourth-year medical students (MS 4) in 2008, at 1 academic institution, with a 19-item questionnaire and compared their responses to the 2003 responses at the same institution on the same questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  : A total of 463 trainees (53%) completed the 2008 survey, with a mean overall safety score of 3.54, which significantly improved from the 2003 overall score of 3.41 (P < 0.001). Compared with those from 2003, respondents in 2008 more strongly agree that physician-nurse teamwork (P = 0.001), attending supervision (P = 0.017), 80-hour workweek (P < 0.001), computer order entry (P < 0.001), and improved resident sign-out (P < 0.001) help reduce adverse events. The 2008 trainees feel more prepared to prevent adverse events (P = 0.030) and more acknowledge the ethical responsibility to disclose adverse events to patients (P = 0.002). However, compared with 2003, fewer 2008 respondents felt that reducing nurses' patient load would reduce adverse events (P = 0.015); on 8 questionnaire items, there were no significant attitudinal changes between 2003 and 2008.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  : Physician trainee safety attitudes at 1 institution improved between 2003 and 2008, and these trainees support many system-based solutions to adverse events. The changes seem incremental and responses do not fully align with all aspects of a safety culture. Cultural change in health care must involve trainees and address their attitudes.
authors.affiliation: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Divisions of Internal Medicine Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. rachel.sorokin@jefferson.edu
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sorokin
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Riggio
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moleski
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000458:organization & administration; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D061214:Patient Safety; D013997:Time Factors