A Multisite Study of a Quality Improvement Teaching Strategy to Build Competency

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Pedagogy

Background:

• Quality improvement (QI) is crucial in nursing education.
• Effective QI teaching strategies in nursing lack extensive research.
• This study addresses the gap in understanding how to teach QI effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine changes in nursing students' perspectives on QI.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a specific QI teaching strategy.
• To assess the impact of competency-based learning on QI understanding.

Main Methods:

• A multisite, quasiexperimental, pre- and posttest design was employed.
• Six nursing programs participated in the study.
• Student perspectives were measured using pre- and posttest questions aligned with AACN Essentials.

Main Results:

• 254 pretest and 116 posttest responses were analyzed.
• Statistically significant improvements (p=.05) were observed in initial student responses.
• The QI teaching strategy positively influenced student perspectives.

Conclusions:

• Competency-based QI learning activities benefit beginning nursing students.
• The findings support the integration of specific QI teaching strategies in nursing curricula.
• Further research is needed to explore effective QI education methods.