From Education to Practice: Incorporating Quality Improvement Projects Into a Baccalaureate Nursing Curriculum

The accelerated pace of change in health care and the call for a radical transformation in prelicensure nursing education will require changes in baccalaureate nursing programs to ensure nurses are adequately prepared for practice. At one Midwestern university, academic nurse educators developed an innovative multilevel interprofessional and intradisciplinary education opportunity using a Lean Healthcare quality improvement (QI) process to improve systems, strengthen academic-practice partnerships, and bridge the education-to-practice gap. During one 16-week semester, one group of sophomore and junior clinical nursing students worked collaboratively with personnel at a local health care organization on a QI project on sequential compression devices. The students identified practice barriers related to sequential compression device compliance when medication prophylaxis was contraindicated. Using a Lean QI framework, the students developed and implemented a comprehensive, evidence-based venous thromboembolism prophylaxis policy, including tools and strategies for educating employees and patients.