What is QSEN? Faculty Spotlight, July 2018
Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) began in 2005 as a multi-phase project
funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to prepare future nurses with
the knowledge and skills necessary to improve patient care and the health care environments
in which they work. The QSEN competencies are based on the Institute of Medicine (2003)
recommendations and include: (a) patient-centered care; (b) teamwork and collaboration;
(c) evidence-based practice; (d) quality improvement; (e) safety; and (f) informatics.
These competencies are now embedded in nursing curricula and textbooks across the
country and abroad.
The QSEN Institute Regional Center at Jacksonville University is one of three regional centers in the United States dedicated to integrating patient safety into nursing education. The others are the College of New Jersey in Trenton and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
The co-directors of the center are:
- Dr. Teri Chenot, associate professor in the JU Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences’ Keigwin School of Nursing, and
- Dr. Roberta Christopher, assistant professor Keigwin School of Nursing
Dr. Chenot is on the QSEN Institute Board of Directors. Her dissertation, Frameworks for Patient Safety in the Nursing Curriculum, was a mixed-methods design that resulted in a validated survey, Healthcare Professionals Patient Safety Assessment Curriculum Survey (HPPSACS) that measures patient safety awareness among pre-licensure nursing students and was published in the Journal of Nursing Education (Chenot & Daniel, 2010). Her three primary areas of research interest include patient safety, quality, and health outcomes.
Dr. Christopher serves on the National QSEN (Quality and Safety Education for Nursing) International Task Force. Dr. Christopher also serves on the HIMSS TIGER Scholars Workgroup, the Nurses on Boards Coalition (NOBC), and is the President for the Sigma Theta Tau Lambda Rho Chapter-at-Large. Her doctoral dissertation research study focused on the relationship among presenteeism, absenteeism, nurse safety outcomes, and quality of care. Dr. Christopher specializes in the theoretical foundations of appreciative inquiry and joy as applied to organizations (clinical and academic) to optimize teaching, learning, health, well-being, quality, and safety.
The QSEN Institute Regional Center at JU’s aim is to promote synergy to foster quality and safety education and scholarship at the regional level. The JU QSEN center serves the entire Southeast and was made possible with a $44,883 grant from Florida Blue Foundation.
Most recently, Drs. Chenot and Christopher, co-directors, and the Interim Dean of the Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences, Dr. Cheryl Bergman, welcomed the 350+ participants at the 2018 Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) National Forum in Bonita Springs, Florida (May 30 – June 1, 2018) as the forum hosts. As part of the international forum, the leading QSEN thought leaders participated in a “Think Tank” facilitated by Dr. Chenot. Future endeavors include the development of an interprofessional healthcare quality and safety degree, and continued collaboration with a multidisciplinary faculty with Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences.
