Integrating quality and safety science in nursing education and practice

Abstract

Worldwide, health care delivery systems are applying new quality and safety science in response to startling reports of negative patient outcomes. Many health care professionals lack the knowledge, skills and attitudes to change the systems in which they work, calling for radical redesign of nursing education to integrate new safety and quality science. This paper describes the transformation underway in nursing education in the United States to integrate quality and safety competencies through the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project. A national expert panel defined the competencies and surveyed US schools of nursing to assess current implementation. To model the changes needed, a 15-school Pilot Learning Collaborative completed demonstration projects and surveyed graduating students to self-assess their achievement of the competencies. A Delphi process assessed level and placement of the competencies in the curriculum to offer educators a blueprint for spreading across curricula. Specialty organisations are cross-mapping the competencies for graduate education, educational standards have incorporated the competencies into their essentials documents, and a train the trainer faculty development model is now helping educators transform curriculum. Two key questions emerge from these findings: Are any of these projects replicable in other settings? Will these competencies translate across borders?