Quality and Safety In Nursing Education

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

Quality and Safety,Goals of  Quality and Safety Education for Nurses,Key Messages by Quality and Safety Education for Nurses.

Quality and Safety

    In 2009, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) also received funding to complete phase III of the QSEN project. The goal of this phase was to develop the faculty expertise needed to teach the competencies, incorporate the competencies in textbooks, implement innovative teaching strategies, and assist in the licensing and accreditation processes (QSEN, 2012), in February 2012, the RWJF supported the AACN in the development of a new project to establish national QSEN competencies for graduate education. 

Goals of  Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

    In September 2012, the AACN issued graduate level QSEN competencies that focus on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for advanced practice nurses to effectively improve safety and quality in healthcare delivery. Expert consultants and stakeholders achieved four primary goals (AACN, 2012):

1. Develop a consensus on the competencies in quality and safety that must be mastered in a graduate nursing program.

2. Create learning resources and interactive materials to help prepare graduate students to deliver high-quality and safe care.

3. Host workshops to train faculty to facilitate implementation of competencies into curriculum.

4. Develop an online collaborative of education materials for use by graduate-level faculty and clinical partners.

Key Messages by Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

    The Institute of Medicine Report: The Future of Nursing In 2011, the RWJF and the Institute of Medicine partnered to establish recommendations designed to enhance the role of nurses in the delivery of health care. In 2010, the US Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act, a comprehensive healthcare reform legislation. In response to this transformation of US health. care, four key messages were developed by a multidisciplinary committee whose membership represented a variety of healthcare professionals, educators, researchers, policymakers. consumers, advocacy groups, and healthcare institutions (IOM, 2011):

1. Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training.

2. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training.

3. Nurses should be full partners with health professionals in redesigning health care.

4. Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection. 

    Based on these four key messages, the report made eight recommendations to achieve a transformation in nursing education and practice (IOM, 2011):

1. Remove scope of practice barriers (addressing key message #1).

2. Expand opportunities for nurses to lead in collaborative improvement efforts (addressing key message #3).

3. Implement nurse residency programs (addressing key message #1).

4. Increase the proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees to 80% by 2020 (addressing key message #2).

5. Double the number of nurses with a doctorate by 2020 (addressing key message #2).

6. Ensure that nurses engage in lifelong learning (addressing key message #2).

7. Prepare and enable nurses to lead change to advance health (addressing key message #3). 8. Build an infrastructure for the collection and analysis of data (addressing key message #4).

    Certainly, patient education requires a collaborative effort among healthcare team members, all of whom play roles in teaching of greater or lesser importance. However, physicians are first and foremost prepared “to treat, not to teach” ( Gilroth , 1990, p. 30). Nurses, by comparison, are prepared to provide a holistic approach to care delivery. The teaching role is a unique part of nursing's professional domain. Because consumers have always respected and trusted nurses to be their advocates, nurses are in an ideal position to clarify confusing information and make sense out of nonsense. 

    Amid a fragmented healthcare delivery system involving many providers, the nurse serves as coordinator of care. By ensuring consistency of information, nurses can support clients in their efforts to achieve the goal of optimal health (Donovan & Ward, 2001; Donovan et al., 2007). They also can assist their colleagues in gaining knowledge and skills necessary for the delivery of professional nursing care.