Foundation years training and patient safety – a comprehensive introduction?

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the content of the new Foundation Years Curriculum for newly‐qualified medical graduates in terms of its patient‐safety and risk‐management emphases. To examine briefly the impact the curriculum will have on medical trainers responsible for such issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Relevant sections of the curriculum are examined and reproduced within the article, along with the authors' reflections on theoretical and practical implications of its content, as applicable to current National Health Service (NHS) training of doctors. Areas of agreement with previous guidance given to the medical profession from other sources are discussed.

Findings

The curriculum gives an appropriate emphasis to patient‐safety issues. The practical achievement of its broad and ambitious aims will present major, though not insurmountable, challenges to those delivering the training of newly‐qualified doctors within the NHS.

Originality/value

This paper should help those involved in delivering the new curriculum consider the relevant patient‐safety and risk‐management issues that it raises and begin the process of practically achieving them. It should demonstrate the importance of maintaining a patient‐safety outlook as the focus of training for newly‐qualified doctors.

Citation

Cowan, J. and Kavanagh, S. (2005), "Foundation years training and patient safety – a comprehensive introduction?", Clinical Governance: An International Journal, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 254-260. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777270510612875