NURS 655 - Quality and Safety in Nursing

(3 hours) This course focuses on defined quality and safety competencies for nursing to prepare leaders for development and execution of quality improvement and patient safety programs. Within the course, students examine each competency and proposed targets for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be developed. Students will examine issues and concepts such as creating a culture of patient safety; application of quantitative (e.g. statistical process control) and qualitative methods (e.g. focus groups; case studies); and behavioral knowledge and skills in leading interdisciplinary teams. The influence of external forces on quality improvement and patient safety agendas along with health disparities and national and state trends in healthcare will be examined. Research in patient safety and quality improvement science will be analyzed. This course offers students an opportunity to reshape professional identity formation in nursing to include commitment to quality and safety competencies recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).