Patient safety and prevention of errors is a major focus in healthcare, as well as an international area of concern. Ensuring patient safety in academic medical centres is especially important due to the complexity of care and patient acuity levels. As the institutions that educate and train healthcare professionals, academic medical centres have a unique opportunity to establish a culture of patient safety. A number of strategies including direct safety care measures, adequate staffing ratios, medication reconciliation, communication and collaboration can be used to prevent errors. The influence of nursing care on error prevention is especially significant as nurses perform the majority of patient assessment, evaluation, and care for hospitalised patients. This session will review key concepts related to patient safety in academic medical centres, highlighting nursing care implications.