Massive online open course as a strategy for teaching medication safety

Abstract: Introduction: Medication errors are common and cause suffering and costs that can be prevented. The mitigation of adverse drug events is treated as a priority by the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends including the subject of patient safety in the curricula of health profession courses to minimize harm to patients. An open and massive online course (MOOC) on safety in the medication process was developed as an educational strategy for the health area, which was made available through the SUS Virtual Learning Environment (AVASUS) in March 2018. Objective: To estimate the satisfaction and learning of the participants who finished the course. Method: Uncontrolled quasi-experimental design study. The MOOC consists of 30 hours of learning and addresses topics on safety in prescription, dispensing, administration and notification of incidents related to medications. Multiple choice questions were applied pre-and post-test to assess the participants’ level of knowledge and a satisfaction survey was answered at the end of the course. The reliability of the measurement instruments, the significance of improved knowledge and associated factors (sex, age and profession) were analyzed. Results: Of the 7,135 registered participants, from March to December 2018, 2,902 (40.7%) responded to the survey instruments. The reliability of the satisfaction questionnaire was good (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83) and the course was well evaluated as an educational strategy (96.1%). Regarding the level of knowledge, a significant increase was observed (before = 8.10; after = 8.74; p <0.05) with a relative improvement of 32%. The age factor was directly associated with learning (β = 1.36; 95% CI = 0.35-2.36; p = 0.008). Conclusion: The use of MOOC proved to be effective for teaching patient safety in the medication process, a tool that can be used to insert this subject in the curricula of health profession courses.