This course provides an introduction to patient safety and infection control, including the evolution of patient safety and the nature and scale of harm to patients. The emphasis is on understanding how things go wrong and how to improve healthcare processes and systems. It uses theory about safety by design and how this can prevent injuries and healthcare-associated infections. How people actively create safety as they work, is also an important theme. In addition to introduction to theories and knowledge of patient safety work, the course provides an introduction to infection control in healthcare institutions, and will emphasize how this can be seen in the context of a general patient safety thinking. Infection epidemiology and how to register patient injuries and healthcare-associated infections will be included.

The students will have acquired knowledge about mechanisms concerning patient harm, including healthcare-associated infections and thus patient safety. They should have knowledge of and be able to analyze how various adverse reporting systems captures injuries and how these can be used in patient safety work. After completing the course the student should have the necessary skills and competencies in order to consider measures preventing harm caused by the healthcare system, including preventing healthcare-associated infections. They should be able to apply their knowledge on different strategies for implementing measures to prevent harm and litigate  harm, and be able to convey this to other healthcare personals.

The teaching will be a combination of lectures, group discussions and presentations of scientific articles in groups.

The teachers are available at the workshops and through Canvas.

Text book: Patient safety, 2nd edition (Charles Vincent).Selected articles. The curriculum list will be available upon start of the course.

Knowledge in epidemiology (as e.g. FHV320), statistical methods and general microbiology.

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All groups shall participate in oral presentation and discussion of selected cases. 

Individual semester assignment and written examination. Evaluation A - F

Totally 250 hours. Workshops: 30 h X 2 weeks = 60 hours. Preparation and following up work of the workshops, including e-learning and self-study: 90 hours. Semester assignment 100 hours.

Minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway (generell studiekompetanse).

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The course is based on intensive workshops. Approx. 2 weeks full time (lectures and seminars).

The course is offered in collaboration with KBM. 4-6 workshops spread on the autumn term. Teaching may be taking place in The Norwegian Institute of Public Health's localities in Oslo. 

An external examiner approves the evaluation method, in this case the text for the individual assignment and exam. The external examiner should participate in evaluating the semester assignment and the exam.