DESIGN: Mixed-methods research.

SETTING: Private university in Malaysia.

PARTICIPANTS: Pharmacy undergraduate students participated in the study. There were 18 students participated in the qualitative study and 272 students responded to the survey questionnaire.

METHODS: A convergent parallel-mixed method design, involving a quantitative survey and qualitative focus group discussions was used among pharmacy students in a private university in Malaysia. Qualitative data of transcribed verbatim texts were then subjected to a thematic content analysis framework. Multiple correlations were undertaken using the quantitative data to examine how the dependent variable (self-reported knowledge) related to the independent variables (attitudes, behavioural intentions, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control.

PRIMARY OUTCOME: Pharmacy students' attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intentions constructs led to their behaviour towards patient safety.

SECONDARY OUTCOME: The quantitative study revealed that there was a moderate positive correlation between students' self-reported knowledge and attitudes (r=0.48, p=0.03).

RESULTS: Pharmacy students' attitudes and perceived behavioural control constructs had positive correlations with pharmacy students' self-reported knowledge on patient safety. There was no correlation between students' self-reported knowledge and subjective norms (r=0.27, p=0.23). There was a weak positive correlation between students' self-reported knowledge and perceived behavioural control (r=0.39, p=0.04). There was no correlation between students' self-reported knowledge and behavioural intention (r=0.20, p=0.56).