Setting the educational agenda and curriculum for error prevention in emergency medicine

Graduate and postgraduate medical education currently teaches safety in pat ient care by instilling a deep sense of personal responsibility in student practitioners. To increase safety, medical education will have to begin to introduce new concepts from the "safety sciences," without losing the advan tages that the values of commitment and responsibility have gained. There a re two related educational goals. First, we in emergency medicine (EM) must develop a group of safety-educated practitioners who can understand and im plement safe practice innovations in their clinical settings, and will be i nstrumental in changing our professional culture. Second, EM must develop a group of teachers and researchers who can begin to deeply understand how s afety is maintained in emergency care, develop solutions that will work in emergency department settings, and pass on those insights and innovations. The specifics of what should be taught are outlined briefly. Work is curren tly ongoing to identify more specifically the core content that should be i ncluded in educational programs on patient safety in emergency care. Finall y, careful attention will have to be paid to the way in which these princip les are taught. It seems unlikely that a series of readings and didactic le ctures alone will be effective. The analysis of meaningful cases, perhaps s upplemented by high-fidelity simulation, seems to hold promise for more suc cessful education in patient safety.