Quality And Safety Education For Nurses: A Case Study

The overall goal through all phases of The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is to address the challenge of preparing future nurses with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in which they work. In order to accomplish this goal, six competencies were defined. These competencies from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) are patient centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, informatics and safety. Over a decade has passed since the Institute of Medicine’s reports on the need to improve the American healthcare system. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

Over time the health care industry has become more complex. Health care is rapidly evolving and continuing to complicate our delivery of care, which in turn has the same effect on quality of care. This steady evolution and change results in nursing shortages and an increase in the prevalence of errors being made. In hopes of preventing these errors and creating safe and high quality patient care, with the focus on new and improved ways of thinking, The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was developed. The QSEN focuses on the following competencies: patient-centered care, quality improvement, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. Their initiatives work to prepare and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to make improvements in the quality and safety of health care systems (Qsen.org, 2014).

This outcome is based on the MSN essentials III, IV, and VIII. MSN essential III focuses on quality improvement and safety. A master’s prepared nurse must be skilled in the methods, tools, performance measures, and standards associated to quality, as well as prepared to apply quality principles within an organization. Improvement in the patient safety along with diminishing and eliminating patients harm is the fundamental of quality care. Masters prepared nurses should analyze the information about quality initiatives to improve health outcomes across the continuum of care. They also need to implement evidence-based plans to improve quality and safety as well as compare and contrast several appropriate quality improvement models. MSN IV focuses on applying research outcomes within the practice setting to resolve practice problems. Professional practice in all levels should be grounded in the ethical translation of current evidence into practice. Master’s-prepared nurses are expected to lead continuous improvement processes based on translational research skills (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2017). Based on the chamberlain program outcome, I have learned how to provide quality and safest patient care by making an appropriate diagnosis and treating the patient by utilizing the research

After reviewing the six Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Competencies I can definitely see how implementing these skills into the medical field results in improved patient care. Examining this week’s reading assignments I selected practices/ strategies that met each individual competency and they are as follows:

To increase the confidence of nurses, Quality and Safe Education for Nurses (QSEN) was introduced as an initiative to promote education and strategies in interdisciplinary collaboration and communication with competitive knowledge, skills, and ability to challenge physicians (Scholl and Jenkins,

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) was developed with the purpose of providing professional nurses with the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the health care systems within which they work (QSEN, 2014). However, since its implementation and integration in nursing education, studies show little progress in improving quality and safety in health care delivery (Dolansky & Moore, 2013). The purpose of this article critique is to evaluate the cause analysis and recommendations made by the authors.

Quality and Safety Education in Nursing (QSEN) was started around 2005 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. QSEN's main goal is to “prepare future nurses with knowledge, skills and attitudes (or KSAs) necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare system,” (QSEN, 2017). “Integration of clinical skills with the intellectual capacity to safely manage the complexity of nursing work in key to quality care in a time of diminishing resources,” ( Dolansky, 2013). “It is vital for schools of nursing to meet the needs of today's complex health care systems by including principles of quality and safety throughout the curriculum,” (Lewis, 2016). Within the KSAs are six main categories; patient-centered care, teamwork

Mulloy, D. F., & Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient safety & quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2678/

In the article “What Do Nurses Really Do?”, Suzanne Gordon explores what nurses truly do. She concludes that nurses “save lives, prevent complications, prevent suffering, and save money” (Gordon 2006). Nurses provide care for their patients in the physical and emotional sense. Emotionally caring for a patient and being sensitive to his or her needs result from interacting with patients while performing the skills and using the knowledge that nurses learned in school. Nurses grow in their skills, knowledge, and attitudes through practice. Quality and safety education for nursing incorporates competencies that all nurses must use in their practice. These nursing competencies include evidence-based nursing practice, quality improvement, safety, teamwork and collaboration, patient-centered care, and informatics.

In addition, I have learned that patient safety is at the forefront of nursing and the ability to think outside of the box. Before I had started the nursing program, if I was asked about patient safety my first thoughts would be, what could I do to the prevent the patient from falling, since then I have come to realize that patient safety encompasses so much more. At last my last clinical we had care of the a gentleman who spoke no English, he would just look at us and smile, If it won’t for the use of the interpreter I can see how this patient care would have been affective.

Believe it or not, nurses can be lazy. This is especially true towards the end of a 12-hour shift after working three days in a row. Critical pieces of information about hospitalized patients can be lost in the realm of communication due to one thing: a poor hand-off report. Quality handoff report enables nurses to recognize changes in patient status and anticipate risks thus ensuring patient safety. When a shift-change occurs, the seamless transfer of knowledge relevant to each patient must be accurate and complete. The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) movement was initiated in 2005 as a response to summons for improved quality and safety in nursing practice. Nursing leaders joined forces to create consistent competencies to integrate into nursing education with the goal to prepare future nurses to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes focused on quality and safety. The QSEN initiative has flourished in the realm of healthcare and become a national resource for nursing educators and transformed into a framework of competency for all nurses. Based on the Institute of Medicine’s competencies (2003), the QSEN faculty and National Advisory Board designed six specific competency categories including patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. As a major contribution to healthcare practices, these statements serve as a

In October 2005 the Quality and Safety Education for Nursing program was established. This program is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. QSEN was developed specifically for future nurses to understand and be aware of key challenges such as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are essential to constantly advance the quality and safety of the way healthcare systems work. The goal for QSEN is to reshape the identity of nursing so it includes the recommendations by the Institute of Medicine so there is a commitment to the quality and safety proficiency (Dycus, 2009).

Quality and Safety have been an important theme throughout my nursing career. As a supervisor being able to teach and infuse other nurses with the same drive for Quality and Safety can be challenging, especially if nurses perceive processes as interfering with their work productivity. These courses have added to my knowledge base of why Quality and Safety are so important and how to implement this importance daily. Participation and support of staff to better understand the importance of their role individually as well as part of an interdisciplinary team to promote Quality and Safety is a very important message to continue to support. These courses have provided additional tools to do just that.

The WGU nursing program helped me in developing my professional definition of quality and safety by enlightening my understanding of root cause analysis, and system failures. The IHI course was an eye opener in my understanding of quality improvement, and the processes required to enhance safety and quality improvement. The courses that really assisted me in my definition include, the Organizational Systems and Quality Leadership, the Leadership and Professional Image, and Professional Roles and Values; and the Evidence-Based Practice and Applied Nursing Research.

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses talks about the nursing competencies needed to accrue the quality and safety of patient care. “Quality and safety are core values in health care based on the commitment to uphold ethical principles to do no harm, always safeguard the patient, and act with ethical comportment (Egan, 2013)” as cited in (Sherwood & Zomorodi, 2014, p. 16). There are 6 QSEN competencies and they are: Patient-Centered Care, Teamwork & Collaboration, Evidence Based Practice, Quality Improvement, Safety, and Informatics. Patient-Centered Care is where the nurse recognizes that the patient is the one that is in control and that the nurse and patient will come together to facilitate an appropriate plan of care. Teamwork & Collaboration is where a nurse can function successfully within the nursing team and other cohorts and possess great communication skills, respect to colleges, and share decision-making to achieve quality patient care. Evidence Based Practice is where the nurses use current evidence with clinical skill and the patient preferences to incumbent optimal health care. Quality Improvement is the method for continuously finding ways to provide better patient care and services. Safety is minimizing the risk of harm to patients. Lastly, Informatics is the use of information to identify, describe, manage, and communicate data, knowledge, and wisdom in the nursing practice. Patient, Mr. Q, is a 31-year-old that had a spinal fusion surgery due to chronic