Background: Transitions of patient care from the inpatient to outpatient setting is a high-risk time often resulting in medical errors and adverse events. Transitions of care programmes have been demonstrated to reduce negative outcomes. Several professional societies have highlighted care transitions as a central pillar of patient care and therefore a crucial aspect of health professional education; however, little data exist on medical student education in this area.
Approach: The Transitions of Care Curriculum was developed and delivered to all Harvard Medical School Core I Internal Medicine Clerkship students at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA between January 2017 and March 2019, where 12-14 students participated each quarter and included didactic teaching followed by experiential learning. Student data were collected via postclerkship survey. Patient data were collected via chart review. Student self-reported comfort level with transitions in care skills and medical errors were analysed.
Evaluation: All student measures related to comfort with transitions in care skills demonstrated statistically significant improvement after curriculum participation(p < 0.001). Of the patients with a completed postdischarge note, students identified ≥1 postdischarge related issue in 33 of 70 patients, with multiple issues identified in many of these patients. Seventy-six total issues were identified.
Implications: The Transitions of Care Curriculum demonstrated promising student and patient outcomes, suggesting that students can successfully learn and advance clinical skills while having a positive impact on a highly needed and important aspect of patient care by reducing postdischarge errors and adverse events.
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