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Appendix H. Patient-safety education
The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 15.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe,
Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members and that this aim may be pursued in particular by the adoption of common rules in the health field;
Considering that access to safe health care is the basic right of every citizen in all member states;
Recognising that although error is inherent in all fields of human activity, it is however possible to learn from mistakes and to prevent their reoccurrence and that health-care providers and organisations that have achieved a high level of safety have the capacity to acknowledge errors and learn from them;
Considering that patients should participate in decisions about their health care, and recognising that those working in health-care systems should provide them with adequate and clear information about potential risks and their consequences, in order to obtain their informed consent to treatment;
Recalling that Article 2 of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No. 164) establishes the primacy of the human being over the sole interest of society or science, and recalling its Article 3 on the equitable access to health care of appropriate quality;
Considering that the methodology for the development and implementation of patient-safety policies crosses national boundaries and that their evaluation requires substantial resources and expertise and should be shared;
Recalling its Recommendations Nos. R (97) 5 on the protection of medical data, R (97) 17 on the development and implementation of quality improvement systems (QIS) in health care, and R (2000) 5 on the development of structures for citizen and patient participation in the decision-making process affecting health care, and its Resolution ResAP(2001)2 concerning the pharmacist’s role in the framework of health security, which explicitly suggests working in partnership with other health professionals;
Noting the relevance of the World Health Organisation (WHO) “Health for All” targets for the European Region (target 2) and of its policy documents on improving health and quality of life and having regard to its Health Assembly Resolution 55.18 (2002) on “Quality of care: patient safety”, which recognises the need to promote patient safety as a fundamental principle of all health systems;
Considering that patient safety is the underpinning philosophy of quality improvement and that all possible measures should therefore be taken to organise and promote patient-safety education and quality of health-care education;
Considering that the same principles of patient safety apply equally to primary, secondary and tertiary care and to all health professions as well as to health promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and other aspects of health care;
Recognising the need to promote open co-ordination of national and international regulations concerning research on patient safety,
Patient-safety education
See Appendix H (pdf-file) of Recommendation Rec(2006)7 of the Council of Europe
NOTE: text markers added to increase readability (not applied in the original).
1. Education for patient safety should be introduced at all levels within health-care systems, including individual public and private health-care organisations. The main focus should be on educating health-care professionals, including managers and senior figures involved in health-care governance, in patient-safety issues relevant to their function. In order to promote a change in attitudes towards greater patient safety, informing and educating to this end should begin for future doctors, nurses and other health professionals, and for administrators, as part of their training.
2. Education for patient safety should also be introduced for patients and their families, the general public, the media, consumer organisations, health purchasers and insurers, corporate organisations, government bodies and other relevant organisations. The main focus should be on raising awareness of patient-safety issues.
3. Patient Safety Education Programmes (PSEPs) should be developed and implemented by all educational institutions providing health-related curricula; professional accrediting bodies; certifying and licensing boards; and diploma appraisal and revalidation bodies.
4. Issues or topics for consideration in developing PSEPs should include, as a minimum:
a. the essence of a good patient-safety culture;
b. risk assessment, decision making and proactive management of safe health-care processes;
c. moral, legal and technical considerations;
d. human-factor considerations;
e. patients’ perspective of safety and their values together with the point of view of health professionals;
f. essential communication and interaction considerations for health-care professionals and teams;
g. informed consent – scope and content;
h. reporting and analysing patient-safety incidents;
i. root-cause analysis and learning from patient-safety incidents;
j. open disclosure of patient-safety incidents;
k. shared decision making.
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