Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25515429›Full record

ArticleBMC family practice2014

Patient safety skills in primary care: a national survey of GP educators.

Maria Ahmed, Sonal Arora, John McKay, Susannah Long, Charles Vincent, Moya Kelly, Nick Sevdalis, Paul Bowie

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC family practice, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 22% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.

Maria AhmedCentre for Primary Care, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. maria.k.ahmed@gmail.com.
Sonal AroraDepartment of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, London, W2 1NY, UK. sonal.arora06@imperial.ac.uk.
John McKayNHS Education for Scotland, 2 Central Quay, Glasgow, G3 8BW, UK. John.McKay@nes.scot.nhs.uk.
Susannah LongSt Mary's Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Praed Street, London, W2 1NY, UK. s.long@imperial.ac.uk.
Charles VincentDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Tinbergen Building, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3UD, UK. charles.vincent@psy.ox.ac.uk.
Moya KellyNHS Education for Scotland, 2 Central Quay, Glasgow, G3 8BW, UK. Moya.Kelly@nes.scot.nhs.uk.
Nick SevdalisWright Fleming Building, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK. n.sevdalis@imperial.ac.uk.
Paul BowieNHS Education for Scotland, 2 Central Quay, Glasgow, G3 8BW, UK. Paul.Bowie@nes.scot.nhs.uk.
NHS Education for Scotland · GBImperial College Healthcare NHS Trust · GBImperial College London · GBSt Mary's Hospital · GBUniversity of Glasgow · GBUniversity of Manchester · GBUniversity of Oxford · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundClinicians have a vital role in promoting patient safety that goes beyond their technical competence. The qualities and attributes of the safe hospital doctor have been explored but similar work within primary care is lacking. Exploring the skills and attributes of a safe GP may help to inform the development of training programmes to promote patient safety within primary care. This study aimed to determine the views of General Practice Educational Supervisors (GPES) regarding the qualities and attributes of a safe General Practitioner (GP) and the perceived trainability of these 'safety skills' and to compare selected results with those generated by a previous study of hospital doctors.

methodsThis was a two-stage study comprising content validation of a safety skills questionnaire (originally developed for hospital doctors) (Stage 1) and a prospective survey of all GPES in Scotland (n = 691) (Stage 2).

resultsStage 1: The content-validated questionnaire comprised 66 safety skills/attributes across 17 broad categories with an overall content validation index of 0.92. Stage 2: 348 (50%) GPES completed the survey. GPES felt the skills/attributes most important to being a safe GP were honesty (93%), technical clinical skills (89%) and conscientiousness (89%). That deemed least important/relevant to being a safe GP was leadership (36%). This contrasts sharply with the views of hospital doctors in the previous study. GPES felt the most trainable safety skills/attributes were technical skills (93%), situation awareness (75%) and anticipation/preparedness (71%). The least trainable were honesty (35%), humility (33%) and patient awareness/empathy (30%). Additional safety skills identified as relevant to primary care included patient advocacy, negotiation skills, accountability/ownership and clinical intuition ('listening to that worrying little inner voice').

conclusionsGPES believe a broad range of skills and attributes contribute to being a safe GP. Important but subtle differences exist between what primary care and secondary care doctors perceive as core safety attributes. Educationalists, GPs and patient safety experts should collaborate to develop and implement training in these skills to ensure that current and future GPs possess the necessary competencies to engage and lead in safety improvement efforts.

Indexed as

Clinical CompetenceFaculty, MedicalPatient SafetyPrimary Health CareGeneral PracticeHumansProspective StudiesReproducibility of ResultsScotlandSurveys and Questionnaires

Identifiers

PMID25515429
PMCPMC4275946
OpenAlexW2019950036

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.