Unit information: Patient Safety and Risk Management in 2024/25

Unit name	Patient Safety and Risk Management
Unit code	MEEDM0033
Credit points	0
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Grant
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	Registration on the two linked units MEEDM0034 and MEEDM0035.
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	Bristol Medical School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Unit Information

Why is the unit important?

In order to generate impactful solutions, the contributory factors that lead to it needs to be fully understood. A failure to fully understand all of the contributory factors leads to implementation plans that fail to address the true problem and a failure to improve outcome. Using patient safety and risk management theory, this unit aims to enhance learner’s ability to critically analyse events. Thus, enabling them to develop and implement sustainable solutions to address the root causes of these problems.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study?

This programme is designed for individuals with an interest in pursuing a career in promotion, design and delivery of healthcare improvement initiatives. It draws from the theoretical frameworks and practice-oriented knowledge and skills from a variety of specialist subject areas that will enable you to develop an in depth understanding of the strategies required to establish a culture of organisational learning focussed on continued proactive improvement of healthcare delivery. Central to this approach is breaking down of an engrained silo culture and the creation of key relationships between educational and governance infrastructures. Integral to an organisations governance infrastructure is a well-functioning safety management system that contains elements that not only focus on gathering information on organisational performance, identifying areas for improvement, but also elements that respond to that information and enable the organisation and its staff to continually learn and improve. Cultivating a reciprocal relationship between these information gathering elements and the response elements allows the information gathering elements to in turn assess whether the improvement strategies developed in response has had the desired effect. This continual process allows organisations to transition to learning organisations – an organisation that continually learns and adjusts whilst delivering a service.

This unit allows you to develop a deeper understanding of the factors that play a role in shaping healthcare outcomes both intended and unintended.

Your learning on this unit

An overview of content:

Using patient safety and risk management as a framework you will have the opportunity to reflect on events by engaging with a wider range of academic concepts. These concepts are divided in four overarching themes:

• Theoretical Constructs

Explores the academic concepts of safety management, risk management, causality, accident models, resilience, systems engineering, human factors, non-technical skills, teamwork and team adaptive capacity.

• Behavioural and Human Factors of error

Explores the behavioural and human factors that impact on the error, the analysis of the error and the individual and organisational response to the error.

• Culture and analysis of error

Explores different forms of culture and the approaches to analysis of error.

• Managing change

Explores tools, methodologies and techniques to manage change and optimise impact.

How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit:

This unit allows you to develop a deeper understanding of the factors that play a role in shaping healthcare outcomes both intended and unintended.

Your ability to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of events will allow you to design implementation plans that deliver sustainable change. In addition, you will develop a practical understanding of non-technical skills and teamwork skills that will enable you to effectively lead the implementation of change.

Learning Outcomes:

Learning by Knowing:

1. Compare the differences and relations between Safety Management, Risk Management, Health and Safety and Patient Safety.
2. Identify practical applications of internal and external components of Risk Management.
3. Understand human factors theory and its impact on safety and change management.
4. Differentiate relationships and co-dependencies between Risk Management, Patient Safety, Safety Management Systems, Quality Improvement, Education and Learning Organisations.
5. Discuss key features and skills required to effectively manage and sustain change in their own context.
6. Critically analyse the components required to establish a culture of organisational learning in a healthcare system.

Learning by Doing:

1. Demonstrate a critical approach to an organisation’s proactive improvement of healthcare delivery.
2. Critically analyse the health sector using the focus of key relationships between educational and governance infrastructures.
3. Demonstrate criticality towards literature and theory relevant to health care improvement and organisational learning.

Learning by Being:

1. Develop inquisitive and analytical mindset to the analysis of adverse events, focussed on understanding the full extent of contributory factors prior to developing and implementing mitigatory changes in practice.
2. Propose and develop an action plan to implement change in practice to address skill or knowledge gap.
3. Develop skills to engage stakeholders in the implementation and maintenance of change.

How you will learn

The unit will be delivered through a mixture of self-guided study materials, real time and recorded lectures, web-based tutorials and discussions, case study work, readings, and activities. There will be some core readings and critical analysis which you are required to carry out before synchronous teaching sessions. The use of the Blackboard online learning environment will be actively pursued to develop your understanding and engagement with the unit content.

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (Formative): 

Capstone Pitch Presentation

During the year, at different stages of the implementation of your improvement project, there will be opportunities to receive formative assessment and feedback. The first of these opportunities is the Capstone Pitch Day during the induction week. You will be given an opportunity to present a quick outline of your proposed idea for your Capstone Project.

Formative written assessment

In this formative assignment you will write a 1500-word assignment describing your approach to identifying the tools and methodologies utilised to establish your team to develop and manage the implementation of your project. Your analysis should include your critical appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of each tool and methodology and the conclusions you drew that supports your choice of the best suited ones for your project.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative) 

No summative assessment is linked to this 0-credit taught unit. Assessment is delivered, and credit awarded, via the Healthcare Improvement Capstone Assessment Unit. You will build on this formative written reflection in your summative written Capstone project report. 

When assessment does not go to plan: 

You will receive extensive formative feedback that will both inform you of the current level of your work and provide you with detailed guidance on how to improve your performance in the Capstone Unit. 

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MEEDM0033).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.