Table 6. Theme, category, subcategory, and codes from content analysis.

Theme	Category	Group	Subcategory	Code	Examples of quotes used for coding
Perceptions of PS education	• Awareness of the external environment of PS education	Both	• Ambiguous and extensive PS	• Ambiguous and vast range of PS	“Though patient safety has been emphasized, I’m not quite sure what the range of patient safety is.” “Patient safety looks like a bigger topic than I used to think.” “I think all content that we teach to our students on a daily basis is relevant to patient safety.” “Do I need to think about patient safety separately? I think patient safety seems to be blended in clinical practice.”
		SCI	• Saturated nursing curriculum	• Burden of PS education in a fully saturated curriculum	“It is difficult to teach patient safety because students have a heavy burden of regular lectures and practica for the national registered nurse examination.”
			• Loose link between PS and nursing education	• PS topic is not explicitly linked with each subject and/or content area in the undergraduate nursing program.	“Since we have not learned about patient safety when we were in undergraduate, we rarely teach students about patient safety. When I instruct students about medication, I tell them to keep the “five rights rule.” However, I doubt if I teach it from a ‘patient safety’ perspective.”
		HNP	• PS that is always taken for granted	• Despite taking PS for granted in clinical field, not many opportunities are present for PS discussions	“Patient safety is something that I always take for granted. However, there was little opportunity to discuss patient safety.” “Since patient safety is something that should be maintained all the time, I feel that it is always around us.”
			• Enforcing compliance with high standards of PS	• Reinforcement of the importance of meeting PS standards in the hospital. • Hospital accreditation for PS	“There is a growing emphasis on hand washing and patient identification in this hospital accreditation.”
			• Difficulty of satisfying PS standards in clinical practice	• Gap between busy clinical practice and PS standards	“It is difficult to apply the standard of hospital accreditation to actual clinical practice. The standard is separate from actual clinical practice.” “It is difficult to comply with PS standard in a busy situation. There are too many patients to care for, and also many tasks need to be done quickly.”
	• Self-awareness of roles and preparedness for PS education	Both	• Lack of confidence in providing education about PS	• Lack of experience of receiving PS education	“Patient safety is the most important thing, but it seems that there has not been systematic education on how to teach it in clinical practice.” “In order to teach patient safety, I must have had the experience of being educated about patient safety first. But I think that experience is lacking.”
		SCI	• Limited role as clinical educator in the hospital	• Current education system in which we cannot be actively involved in hospital practice, because we are not affiliated with the hospital	“Since school clinical instructors are not affiliated with the hospital, the part that can be involved in the clinical practice of the students is extremely limited.”
			• Recognition of role as “educator”	• Educators' role to teach the right principles and encourage students to comply with them	“Because the range of patient safety is broad and closely related to all nursing subjects, I think I can teach students in terms of connectivity with patient safety.” “I think patient safety seems to be blended in clinical practice.”
		HNP	• Burden of responsibility in PS education	• Responsibility of education as a preceptor • Taking charge of the education of new nurses	“It is very difficult to explain everything about patient safety because the preceptors teach new nurses while seeing the patient in charge. The hospital has a lot of reliance on preceptors to educate new nurses, and I think the hospital is looking forward to new nurses acquiring appropriate clinical competency naturally as time passes.”
			• Recognition of role as “connector” and “role model”	• Role as “connector” and “role model" who reduces the gap between what students learn in school and the reality of the clinical field	“I think my role is helping students bridge the gap between what they learned at school and the reality of the clinical field.”
Educational needs of nursing educators.	• Educational style and content of PS education	SCI	• Need for education for educators	• Need for education to share experiences in PS education with educators, such as discussions or symposiums • Need for didactic lectures about PS principles and concepts	“Since I have learned about patient safety in a fragmented way, I need a lecture that integrates the scope of patient safety.” “Education in the form of discussions, lectures, or symposiums are likely to be more effective for instructors.” “The purpose of education for the instructors is to deliver it to the students well, so patient safety education for instructors would be better in a way that can be effectively delivered and applied to students.”
			• Need for collaboration with the hospital	• Need for sharing up-to-date information about current clinical system and practices • Need for close collaboration with the hospital	“I think the clinical field is changing too quickly.” “We need to know the latest trends in the clinical field through close collaboration with a hospital.”
		HNP	• Need for case sharing as part of PS education	• Need for PS education to share PS cases to prevent error recurrence	“Various cases of errors such as medication errors are not shared well. There is also a tendency to be unwilling to share experiences or errors. In fact, it is uncomfortable to talk about an error. However, I think that learning from errors seems like an authentic education.”
			• Need for systemic education support by the hospital	• Need for systemic PS education provided by the hospital for all nurses	“It would be much better if the hospital applied the system approach preemptively to prevent errors from occurring.” “It would also be helpful if the hospital taught us about the concept of patient safety.” “Indeed, I think that this kind of patient safety education is needed not just for nurse preceptors but all nurses.”
			• Need for education involving direct participation	• Need for education through direct participation • Need for education, such as simulations and role playing	“I think that learning from experience would be more effective.” “The role play is to be in the position of the other party. I think this experience makes me think about what I am supposed to do in a similar situation.”

PS: patient safety, SCI: school clinical instructors, HNP: hospital nurse preceptors