The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN)

“Recognize the patient or designee as the source of control and full partner in providing compassionate and coordinated care based on respect for the patient’s preferences, values, and needs.”

1. Describe how diverse cultural, ethnic, and social backgrounds function as sources of patient, family, and community values
2. Explore ethical and legal implications of patient-centered care
3. Discuss principles of effective communication

1. Engage patients or designated surrogates in active partnerships that promote health, safety, well-being, and self-care management
2. Recognize the boundaries of therapeutic relationships
3. Facilitate informed patient consent for care

1. Value the patient’s expertise with own health and symptoms
2. Seek learning opportunities with patients who represent all aspects of human diversity

“Function effectively within nursing and inter-professional teams, fostering open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making to achieve quality patient care.”

1. Analyze differences in communication style preferences among patients and families, nurses, and other members of the health team
2. Describe impact of own communication style on others
3. Discuss effective strategies for communicating and resolving conflict

1. Communicate with team members, adapting own style of communicating to needs of the team and situation
2. Demonstrate commitment to team goals
3. Initiate actions to resolve conflict

1. Acknowledge own potential to contribute to effective team functioning
2. Appreciate importance of intra- and inter-professional collaboration

“Integrate best current evidence with clinical expertise and patient/family preferences and values for delivery of optimal health care.”

1. Differentiate clinical opinion from research and evidence summaries
2. Explain the role of evidence in determining best clinical practice
3. Demonstrate knowledge of basic scientific methods and processes

1. Base individualized care plan on patient values, clinical expertise, and evidence
2. Read original research and evidence reports related to area of practice
3. Question rationale for routine approaches to care that result in poor outcomes or adverse events

1. Value the concept of EBP as integral to determining best clinical practice
2. Appreciate the importance of regularly reading relevant professional journals

“Use data to monitor the outcomes of care processes and use improvement methods to design and test changes to continuously improve the quality and safety of health care systems.”

1. Recognize that nursing and other health professions students are parts of systems of care and care processes that affect outcomes for patients and families
2. Describe approaches for changing processes of care

1. Use tools (such as flow charts, cause-effect diagrams) to make processes of care explicit
2. Participate in a root cause analysis of a sentinel event
3. Design a small test of change in daily work (such as implementing Plan-Do-Study-Act)

1. Appreciate that continuous quality improvement is an essential part of the daily work of all health professionals
2. Value own and others’ contributions to outcomes of care in local care settings
3. Appreciate how unwanted variation affects care

“Minimizes risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.”

1. Examine human factors and other basic safety design principles as well as commonly used unsafe practices
2. Discuss potential and actual impact of national patient safety resources, initiatives, and regulations

1. Demonstrate effective use of strategies to reduce risk of harm to self or others
2. Communicate observations or concerns related to hazards and errors to patients, families, and the health care team
3. Use organizational error reporting systems for near misses and error reporting

1. Appreciate the cognitive and physical limits of human performance
2. Value own role in preventing errors
3. Value relationship between national safety campaigns and implementation in local practices and practice settings

“Use information and technology to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making.”

1. Describe examples of how technology and information management are related to the quality and safety of patient care
2. Recognize the time, effort, and skill required for computers, databases, and other technologies to become reliable and effective tools for patient care

1. Navigate the electronic health record
2. Respond appropriately to clinical decision-making supports and alerts
3. Use information management tools to monitor outcomes of care processes

1. Appreciate the necessity for all health professionals to seek lifelong, continuous learning of information technology skills
2. Value technologies that support clinical decision-making, error prevention, and care coordination