Quality improvement for neonatal nurses, part I: a framework for advancing the quality and safety of care

Quality improvement (QI) and patient safety are becoming increasingly powerful drivers for health care planning and delivery. In this two-part series, the concept of QI will be introduced and implications for neonatal nursing care will be discussed. Part I reviews trends in the fields of QI and patient safety and introduces how neonatal practitioners are currently taking up QI and patient safety in their practice. Part II, to come, is titled "Using a Plan-Do-Study-Act Process to Introduce a Step-wise Framework for Establishing Oral Feeds in Premature Infants" will present the QI process "in action" by describing a QI project conducted in a Level III NICU on introducing and testing a new process for improving the transition from tube to oral feeding for preterm infants.