Because the philosophy and science of continuous improvement have come to health care only in recent years, most health professionals learn about them on the job. “By and large, hospitals that want to educate health professionals about quality, safety, and teamwork have to start from scratch with each new graduate they hire,” says Linda Cronenwett, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean and Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing. She is involved in a national initiative to change that reality.
As principal investigator in a Robert Wood Johnson-funded project called Quality and Safety Education for Nurses, Cronenwett is working with ten expert faculty members from different nursing schools and an advisory board representing various regulatory, accreditation and licensure groups to design curricula that will teach nurses the skills of quality improvement. “We want them to understand from the very beginning that the continuous improvement of health care will be part of their daily work life,” says Cronenwett.
The challenge is to add content to an already full curriculum. “We think we can produce robust materials to help schools make this paradigm change without a total additive approach to the curriculum,” she says. The long-term goal is to embed these competencies in the clinical teaching, simulation laboratories and classrooms of all nursing schools. But for now, says Cronenwett, “We are defining the landscape.”
02/01/2007
