Original article
A Necessary Sea Change for Nurse Faculty Development: Spotlight on Quality and Safety

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2009.10.009Get rights and content

More than 10 years have passed since the publication of the Institute of Medicine's report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System, yet recent reports indicate that significant strides toward transformational improvement in quality and patient safety are still necessary. Real progress toward superior health care quality requires foundational enhancements in health care education. An urgent need exists for undergraduate nursing programs to strengthen quality and safety knowledge in their curricula. A first step in attaining this goal is to equip baccalaureate nursing faculty with the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to teach these concepts. The first part of this article provides a compelling case for new graduate nurses to have a comprehensive understanding of how quality and safety issues affect patient outcomes. The second part highlights the specific faculty competencies required to teach quality and safety to undergraduate nursing students and offers a framework that faculty can use for professional development in this area. This article is by no means exhaustive but provides a starting point for providing undergraduate nursing faculty with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to assist students to achieve quality and safety competencies in their curricula.

Section snippets

Quality

In its Crossing the Quality Chasm report, the IOM (2001) designated six central aims for health care improvement: safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, and patient-centered care. Stemming from these 21st century health care system ideals, the IOM (2003) touted a new vision for health professions education:

All health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement

Opportunities for Nursing

Nurse staffing levels and skill mix have been found to be associated with several preventable, hospital-acquired complications, including pressure ulcers, falls, UTIs, and catheter-related infections (Blegen et al., 1998, Needleman et al., 2002, Unruh, 2003); yet prior to recent regulatory and reimbursement changes, there had not been a mechanism for measuring nurses' economic contribution to hospitals (Kurtzman & Buerhaus, 2008). Future pay-for-performance initiatives will incorporate

Conclusion

In today's increasingly complex health care environment, new graduate nurses must possess a comprehensive understanding of the quality and safety issues that affect patient outcomes. This article has presented a compelling case that illustrates the urgent need for incorporating quality and safety content into the undergraduate curricula and has offered a framework for faculty development related to quality and safety. Nursing has been identified as having the potential for making the biggest

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