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Sample essay on quality and safety education for nurses
The importance of teamwork
Sample essay on quality and safety education for nurses
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Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Competencies were developed specifically for future nurses to understand and be aware of career specific challenges such as knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Teamwork and collaboration is one of the QSEN competencies that is essential to constantly advance the quality and safety of the way healthcare systems work. If there is no teamwork, care for the clients will inevitably decline. “Team work and collaboration is defined as the ability to function effectively within nursing and inter-personal teams, fostering open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making to achieve quality patient care. In order to meet those goals one must be able to acknowledge his/her own potential and
Safety competency is essential for high-quality care in the medical field. Nurses play an important role in setting the bar for quality healthcare services through patient safety mediation and strategies. The QSEN definition of safety is that it “minimizes risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.” This papers primary purpose is to review and better understand the importance of safety knowledge, skills, and attitude within nursing education, nursing practice, and nursing research. It will provide essential information that links health care quality to overall patient safety.
The QSEN initiative is the progression of quality and safety of education for nurses that began in 2005 and has been continued over the past eight years. It is a multi-phase process that shows current and future nurses how to apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to their everyday nursing activities(QSEN, 2013, 1). Nurses and student nurses can use their knowledge, skills and attitudes to help prevent never events such as hospital acquired conditions. Never events are medical errors that could have been serious and preventable. They could have been caused by poor communication, lack of proper nursing skills, or simply just negligence. QSEN can also be used to improve nursing outcomes for everyone involved in the healthcare field.
According to Lora Claywell, "The goal of QSEN is to ensure that all nurses develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) to be pivotal in the quest for continuous quality and safety improvement" (Claywell 2014). The general idea, K, is that a nurse must have knowledge of the diversity of cultures, ethics, and education. The significance of this fact being that if the nurse is cognizant of the patient’s culture, beliefs, family values, support systems, and education level, a more thorough and comprehensive plan of care can be formulated. The premise, S, is that a nurse must be skilled in the ability to communicate with and advocate for the patient, assess for and properly treat pain, and incorporate the needs and concerns of the patient and their family.
“The overall goal for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project is to
As a nurse we are responsible for the safety and overall health promotion of our patients. Competency in the nursing field is what ensures patient safety and decreased hospital acquired injury. Continued competence ensures that the nurse is able to perform efficiently and safely in a constantly changing environment. Nurses must continuously evaluate their level of skill and find where improvement needs to be made in order to keep up to date with the expected skill level set by their
Nurses are key components in health care. Their role in today’s healthcare system goes beyond bedside care, making them the last line of defense to prevent negative patient outcomes (Sherwood & Zomorodi, 2014). As part of the interdisciplinary team, nurses have the responsibility to provide the safest care while maintaining quality. In order to meet this two healthcare system demands, the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project defined six competencies to be used as a framework for future and current nurses (Sherwood & Zomorodi, 2014). These competencies cover all areas of nursing practice: patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality
In nursing school, nurses are taught to apply the nursing process to administer care safely and effectively. However, that value doesn’t always coincide with the employer. Instead it is about the e...
The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN’s) goal is to prepare future nurses with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that are needed to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems within which they work. QSEN focuses on six main competencies; patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. As we have learned in earlier classes these competencies and their KSAs offer a base to help us and other nurses as we continue our education and become RNs. As we will learn in this class these KSAs go hand in hand with health assessment.
O’Daniel, M., & A.H., R. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2637/
Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Retrieved from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/
Patient’s safety will be compromised because increase of patient to nurse ratio will lead to mistakes in delivering quality care. In 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a metanalysis and found that “shortage of registered nurses, in combination with increased workload, poses a potential threat to the quality of care… increases in registered nurse staffing was associated with a reduction in hospital-related mortality and failure to rescue as well as reduced length of stay.” Intense workload, stress, and dissatisfaction in one’s profession can lead to health problems. Researchers found that maintaining and improving a healthy work environment will facilitate safety, quality healthcare and promote a desirable professional avenue.
The overall goal for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) plan is to meet the challenge of educating and preparing future nurses to have the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential to frequently progress the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in the continuous improvement of safe practice (QSEN, 2014).Safety reduces the possibility of injury to patients and nurses. It is achieved through system efficiency and individual work performance. Organizations determine which technologies have an effective protocol with efficient practices to support quality and safety care. Guidelines are followed to reduce potential risks of harm to nurses or others. Appropriate policies
Patients Safety is the most crucial about healthcare sector around the world. It is defined as ‘the prevention of patients harm’ (Kohn et al. 2000). Even thou patient safety is shared among organization members, Nurses play a key role, as they are liable for direct and continuous patients care. Nurses should be capable of recognizing the risk of patients and address it to the other multi disciplinary on time.
The QSEN has initiated a taskforce to focus on nursing research to improve the quality of nursing education. Since Nursing Excellence is to promote holistic patient centered care, quality and innovation, education, evidence-based practice, and nursing research, QSEN plays a pivotal role in teaching new nurses these competencies. It provides educational institutes and educators with resources and training needed for producing well-trained nurses for future (QSEN Institute, 2014). The QSEN consultants are available throughout the country for nursing schools to guide them in improving quality and safety education. I am a clinical nurse educator and am very passionate about teaching. I would support QSEN as a nurse and as an educator. In future, I would seek out volunteer opportunities and attend conferences offered by QSEN to improve quality and safety education for current and future nurses.
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher