title: A patient safety and transitions of care curriculum for third-year medical students.
abstract: The elderly are the most vulnerable to adverse events during and after hospitalization. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of a curriculum on patient safety and transitions of care for medical students during an Internal Medicine-Geriatrics Clerkship on students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The curriculum included didactics on patient safety, health literacy, discharge planning and transitions of care, and postdischarge visits to patients. Analysis of pre- and postassessments showed afterwards students were significantly more comfortable assessing a patient's health literacy and confident performing a medication reconciliation, providing education regarding medications, and identifying barriers during transitions. More students were able to identify the most common source of adverse events after discharge (86% vs. 62% before), risk factors for low health literacy (28% vs. 14%), and ways to assess a patient's health literacy (14% vs. 2%). It was feasible to implement a postdischarge visit assignment in an urban tertiary care setting and only required on average of approximately an one and one half hours for students to complete.
authors.affiliation: a Brookdale Department of Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine , Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai , New York , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Sara M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fallar
authors.forename: Reena
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Karani
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education*; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010351:Patient Discharge; D061214:Patient Safety; D010360:Patient Transfer; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology
keywords: geriatrics education; patient safety; transitions of care