Educating undergraduate medical students about patient safety: priority areas for curriculum development.

Learning about patient safety is an important aspect of undergraduate medical curricula but there are no clear priority areas. A recent consensus of international medical educators identified several priority areas and these recommendations include approaches to increase knowledge of patient safety, including the causes and frequency, to develop willingness to take responsibility, to develop self awareness of the situations when patient safety is compromised, to develop communication skills, especially inter-personal, and to develop team working skills.