AlphaMED Resources · https://alphamedicine.uk/Resources/patient-safety
Patient safety
Patient safety is the prevention of avoidable harm during healthcare.
Summary
- It depends on staff reporting mistakes and near misses so that the system can learn from them.
- Most harm comes from weak systems, such as poor handovers or drug packaging that looks alike, more than from one careless person.
- A never event is a serious incident that should not happen if the right checks are in place, such as surgery on the wrong site.
- A just culture supports staff who report honestly and still holds people to account for recklessness.
Interview questions
- You notice that a colleague has made a drug error and has not reported it. What do you do?
- Why might staff be afraid to report a mistake?
- What is a never event?
Practise answering these with a mentor
Our interview preparation has you answer questions like these out loud, with feedback on each answer.
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More NHS hot topics, medical ethics case studies and medical school interview questions are in AlphaMED Resources, which we add to and update through the application cycle.