QSEN Competencies Essentials

Cheatsheet Content

QSEN Competencies: Overview Definition: Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project aims to prepare future nurses with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in which they work. Six Core Competencies: Patient-Centered Care Teamwork & Collaboration Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Quality Improvement (QI) Safety Informatics 1. Patient-Centered Care (PCC) Definition: Recognize the patient or designee as the source of control and full partner in providing compassionate and coordinated care based on respect for patient's preferences, values, and needs. Key Principles: Respect for values, preferences, and expressed needs. Coordination and integration of care. Information, communication, and education. Physical comfort. Emotional support and alleviation of fear and anxiety. Involvement of family and friends. KSAs for PCC: Knowledge: Examine how the patient's preferences, values, and needs influence clinical decision-making. Skills: Provide care with sensitivity and respect for the diversity of human experience. Attitudes: Value seeing health care situations "through patients' eyes." 2. Teamwork & Collaboration Definition: Function effectively within nursing and inter-professional teams, fostering open communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making to achieve quality patient care. Key Elements: Open communication & effective listening. Shared accountability for patient outcomes. Mutual respect & trust. Clear roles & responsibilities. Conflict resolution. KSAs for Teamwork & Collaboration: Knowledge: Describe own strengths, limitations, and values in functioning as a team member. Skills: Initiate requests for help when appropriate in the context of concern for patient safety. Attitudes: Acknowledge own contributions to effective teamwork. Inter-professional Teams: Include nurses, physicians, pharmacists, social workers, therapists, dietitians, etc. 3. Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) Definition: Integrate best current evidence with clinical expertise and patient/family preferences and values for delivery of optimal health care. Components of EBP: Best research evidence. Clinical expertise. Patient values and preferences. EBP Bundles: Small sets of 3-5 evidence-based practices that, when performed collectively and reliably, have been shown to improve patient outcomes (e.g., Central Line Bundle to prevent infections). EBP Tools: Clinical Guidelines: Systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions. Algorithms: Step-by-step procedures to solve a problem. Care Mapping: Visual representation of patient care processes. Clinical Pathways: Multidisciplinary plans of care for specific diagnoses/procedures. KSAs for EBP: Knowledge: Differentiate clinical opinion from research and evidence summaries. Skills: Locate evidence reports related to clinical practice. Attitudes: Value the concept of evidence-based practice as integral to determining best clinical practice. 4. Quality Improvement (QI) Definition: 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. Focus: Improving processes and systems, not individual performance. QI Models: PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act), Six Sigma, Lean. KSAs for QI: Knowledge: Describe the difference between quality improvement and research. Skills: Use tools (e.g., flowcharts, cause-and-effect diagrams) to make care processes explicit. Attitudes: Appreciate that continuous quality improvement is an essential part of the daily work of all health professionals. 5. Safety Definition: Minimizes risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance. Key Concepts: Human factors & error reduction. Risk assessment & prevention. Culture of safety (reporting errors without fear of punishment). Standardization of processes. KSAs for Safety: Knowledge: Examine human factors and other basic safety design principles as well as commonly used unsafe practices (e.g., dependence on memory, abbreviations). Skills: Communicate observations or concerns related to hazards and errors to patients, families, and the healthcare team. Attitudes: Value the contributions of standardization and reliability to safety. 6. Informatics Definition: Use information and technology to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making. Applications: Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Telehealth & remote monitoring. Medication administration systems (e.g., barcode scanning). Clinical decision support systems. KSAs for Informatics: Knowledge: Explain the importance of ethical and legal guidelines for safe and confidential use of information. Skills: Navigate the electronic health record. Attitudes: Value the role of information technology in improving patient care outcomes and creating a safe care environment.