Quality and Safety Education for Nurses

The health care profession is transforming towards integrating the initiatives of the
Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) through specific objectives of specified
Knowledge, Skill and Attitude (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). Being that health care is one of
the most complex businesses in the world, making this transition is not an easy task. The health
care culture needs to change to include changes in everyday practice to support a learning
organization.
Administrators will need to structure the environment for learning and develop an
infrastructure to include the QSEN initiatives as part of the nursing role (Sherwood &
Barnsteiner, 2012). Administrators will also need to work towards performance improvements
(PI) that continuously improve through data collection, establishing priorities and readiness.
This focus is explained as the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. This program works
towards continuous improvement, organizational and personal learning, capabilities and
effectiveness of the organization by improving value to stakeholders and customers (Sherwood
& Barnsteiner, 2012). Not only do these changes improve the quality and safety for the health
care profession, the new focus of continuous improvement including the staff, creates an increase
in RN retention rate (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012).
The nursing role itself is becoming more proactive through QSEN and Knowledge, Skill
and Attitude (KSA) methods. Nurses are the primary force for incorporating evidence-based
materials for improved healthcare outcomes. Nurses will need to have the ability to research and
identify the level of evidence in their findings. Nurses are also the key to finding opportunities
for continuous improvement utilizing lean methodology. These methods will reduce non-valueadded activities and increase the Nursing Hours Per Patient Day (Graban, 2012). Nurses

providing best practices with a focus on high-quality care will impact the quality and safety
culture on the work environment (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). With these initiatives nurses
are becoming empowered, creating improved health care outcomes and increased job satisfaction
(Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012).

References
Graban, M. (2012). Lean hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee
Engagement (2nd ed.) Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Sherwood, G., & Barnsteiner, J. (2012). Quality and Safety in Nursing, A Competency Approach
to Improving Outcomes. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and sons