Healthc Inform Res.  2021 Jan;27(1):48-56. 10.4258/hir.2021.27.1.48.

Effects of Self-Education on Patient Safety via Smartphone Application for Self-Efficacy and Safety Behaviors of Inpatients in Korea

• Cho S
• Lee E

• KMID: 2512624
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4258/hir.2021.27.1.48

Abstract

Objectives
This study aimed to determine whether self-educational intervention on patient safety via a smartphone application could improve the level of self-efficacy and safety behaviors of patients. In addition the effect of change in self-efficacy on the improvement of safety behaviors after self-educational intervention was investigated.
Methods
A one-group pre- and post-test design and convenience sampling were implemented. Self-educational intervention via smartphone application was provided to 94 participants in a tertiary university hospital in South Korea. The smartphone application included learning contents on why the participation of patients is critical in preventing hospital-acquired infections and surgery-related adverse events during hospitalization. Paired t-tests and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted to assess the effect of selfeducational intervention and self-efficacy on the improvement of safety behaviors of patients.
Results
After the intervention, the level of self-efficacy and safety behaviors significantly increased from 2.53 to 2.95 and from 2.00 to 2.62, respectively. In the hierarchical regression analysis, the change in self-efficacy accounted for 35.4% of the variance in the improvement of safety behaviors.
Conclusions
The results of this study demonstrated that self-education on patient safety via a smartphone application was an effective strategy to enhance patients’ self-efficacy and safety behaviors. This process could ultimately enhance patient safety by promoting patient involvement during hospitalization and preventing the occurrence of medical errors.

Keyword

Patient Participation, Patient Safety, Self-Efficacy, Mobile Applications, Education