RN-to-BSN Students' Quality Improvement Knowledge, Skills, Confidence, and Systems Thinking

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Professional Nursing Practice

Background:

• Limited evidence exists on RN-to-BSN graduates' mastery of organizational and systems leadership for quality care and patient safety.
• The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice emphasizes the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) quality improvement (QI) competency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test an assessment strategy for measuring RN-to-BSN students' QI competence.
• To evaluate students' perceptions of their QI knowledge and skills.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study involving 59 RN-to-BSN students from six programs.
• Data collected via a Qualtrics survey administered during the students' final semester.

Main Results:

• A majority of students (60%) reported insufficient QI content in their nursing programs.
• Students demonstrated low scores in QI knowledge, skills, and systems thinking.
• Despite low scores, students expressed high self-reported confidence in performing QI.

Conclusions:

• The study offers a viable assessment strategy for evaluating QI competence in nursing students.
• Nursing education must integrate and measure QI competence to equip future nurses for continuous patient care improvement.