Mapping patient safety competency in undergraduate nursing interns: Insights from a latent profile analysis.

Background: High patient safety competency promotes safe clinical practice during undergraduate nursing interns' transition to professional roles and lays a strong foundation for their future careers. Identifying potential subgroups of undergraduate nursing interns based on their patient safety competency, along with the associated factors, may offer targeted insights for developing effective educational interventions.

Aim: To investigate the level of patient safety competency among undergraduate nursing interns using latent profile analysis, identify potential subgroups and their key characteristics, and explore the factors influencing subgroup membership.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 760 undergraduate nursing interns using the Patient Safety Competency Self-Evaluation (PSCSE) scale. Latent profile analysis was employed to identify subgroups based on patient safety competency, and multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the factors associated with subgroup membership.

Results: The overall mean score on the PSCSE scale among undergraduate nursing interns was 152.47 ± 22.53. Latent profile analysis revealed three distinct subgroups: High-competency (25.9 %), Medium-competency (44.7 %), and Low-competency (29.4 %). Factors significantly associated with membership in the High-competency group included the presence of a dedicated patient safety course in the curriculum (OR = 0.418, p < 0.001), participation in evidence-based nursing learning (OR = 0.499, p = 0.003), engagement in case discussions (OR = 0.572, p = 0.047), and involvement in adverse event analysis during the internship (OR = 0.499, p = 0.002).

Conclusions: The identification of distinct levels of patient safety competency among undergraduate nursing interns underscores the need for targeted educational interventions. The inclusion of a dedicated patient safety course in the nursing curriculum, along with active engagement in evidence-based nursing learning, case discussions, and adverse event analysis during internships, may contribute significantly to the development of high patient safety competency in this population.