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Applying Health Education Theory to Patient Safety Programs: Three Case Studies

Department of Health, Behavior & Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland

Jo Anne L. Earp, ScD

Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Elizabeth A. French, MA

Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Program planning for patient safety is challenging because intervention-oriented surveillance data are not yet widely available to those working in this nascent field. Even so, health educators are uniquely positioned to contribute to patient safety intervention efforts because their theoretical training provides them with a guide for designing and implementing prevention programs. This article demonstrates the utility of applying health education concepts from three prominent patient safety campaigns, including the concepts of risk perception, community participation, and social marketing. The application of these theoretical concepts to patient safety programs suggests that health educators possess a knowledge base and skill set highly relevant to patient safety and that their perspective should be increasingly brought to bear on the design and evaluation of interventions that aim to protect patients from preventable medical error.

Key Words: patient safety • health education • intervention campaigns • program planning • health education theory • social marketing • community participation • risk perception

Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 9, No. 2, 123-129 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1524839907312703


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