2023 Volume 14 Issue 2 Pages 73-79
Introduction: To prevent medical accidents, it is critical for health care workers to develop skills for observing patients and the surrounding environment as well as to improve the ability to perceive potential hazards (hereinafter referred to as hazard perception). Differences in personality traits and clinical experience are likely to lead to differences in hazard perception. Therefore, we examined the relationship between personality traits and hazard perception in the clinical setting with the aim of improving hazard perception.
Methods: A total of 47 male students in the Department of Physical Therapy were recruited for participation in this study. The participants received a hazard perception score based on the number of potential hazards that they could identify in photographs of clinical scenes, and these scores were compared between students in different years of university. Ego states were determined using egograms and then compared between the group with high hazard‐perception scores (high‐perception group) and the group with low hazard‐perception scores (low‐perception group).
Results: Hazard perception scores were significantly higher for later‐year students compared with earlier‐year students. The score for the Adult ego state was significantly lower in the low‐perception group than in the high‐perception group. The score for the Critical Parent ego state was lower, albeit not significantly, in the low‐perception group than in the high‐perception group.
Conclusion: Helping students understand their own personality traits and behavioral changes as well as providing them with opportunities to participate in role‐plays and simulations of hazardous situations were considered effective educational methods for improving hazard perception.
