Integration of Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Into Nursing Curriculum

Abstract

International heath and nursing organizations have called for significant changes in nursing education to improve health outcomes. In the United States, a national initiative of Quality and Safety in Nursing Education (QSEN) has been underway to articulate competencies to improve patient safety and health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the integration of QSEN competencies into an undergraduate nursing curriculum. Student self-reports of QSEN competencies were evaluated with the Student Evaluation Survey. Data was collected at baseline, and after Year 1 and Year 2 following implementation of a QSEN integrated curricular intervention. Two-sample T-tests, was used to analyze data from comparable groups. Although the findings were not statistically significant, this is an important area of inquiry as it represents one undergraduate program’s efforts to quantify and measure QSEN integration through curricular changes. Suggestions are made to quantify curricular change and lessons learned are discussed.