Quality Improvement in Nursing: Measurement and Practical Change

Course Purpose

Quality improvement begins by describing a difference between current care and the care patients should reliably experience. This course develops practical reasoning in quality improvement and covers eight connected topics.

Continuing Education Credit Designation

This educational activity is credited for 3 contact hours at completion of the activity.

Overview

This course develops practical reasoning across eight connected topics: defining a local problem and patient-partnered aim; mapping actual work with systems and human factors thinking; selecting measures and operational definitions; collecting time-ordered data and interpreting variation; conducting small PDSA tests; learning from incident reports and root cause analysis; improving handoffs, checklists, and teamwork; and preparing for sustainable, equitable implementation and spread. Nurses learn to connect observations, predictions, measures, and decisions without confusing documentation, project activity, or favorable averages with demonstrated patient benefit.

Objectives

Upon completion of this independent study, the learner will be able to:

1. Describe an observable local care gap without assuming its cause or selecting a solution prematurely.
2. Develop a measurable, time-bound aim with meaningful participation from patients and affected staff.
3. Map actual workflow steps, decisions, delays, dependencies, and adaptations across relevant conditions.
4. Distinguish active errors from latent vulnerabilities and match proposed changes to identified mechanisms.
5. Select complementary outcome, process, and balancing measures linked to the improvement aim.
6. Write operational definitions covering eligibility, counting rules, timing, sources, and missing observations.
7. Develop feasible sampling and collection plans that preserve comparability and confidentiality.
8. Interpret time-ordered data cautiously by examining denominators, context, missingness, and subgroup experience.
9. Plan a small PDSA test with a question, prediction, responsibilities, safeguards, and collection plan.
10. Compare test observations with predictions and justify adaptation, further testing, or stopping.
11. Use incident reports as investigation signals rather than treating report counts as harm rates.
12. Connect multidisciplinary systems analysis to corrective-action ownership and evaluation.
13. Evaluate handoffs as transfers of responsibility requiring discussion and shared understanding.
14. Assess checklist and teamwork interventions for workflow fit, unintended consequences, and evidence limitations.
15. Specify implementation infrastructure, monitoring ownership, feedback, and responses to emerging problems.
16. Plan responsible spread with local testing, patient partnership, equity review, and required authorization.

Who this course is for:

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, registered nurses, licensed practical or vocational nurses, and other healthcare providers in any setting who want continuing education on Quality Improvement in Nursing: Measurement and Practical Change.

Course outline

13 sections · finish in any order across devices

1. 1

   Course overview and learning objectives

2. 2

   Introduction

3. 3

   Defining a Local Problem and a Patient-Partnered Aim

4. 4

   Mapping Work and Applying Systems and Human Factors Thinking

5. 5

   Choosing Measures and Writing Operational Definitions

6. 6

   Collecting Data Over Time and Interpreting Variation

7. 7

   Planning and Documenting Small PDSA Tests

8. 8

   Learning from Incident Reports and Root Cause Analysis

9. 9

   Testing Safer Handoffs and Checklists with Teamwork and Workflow Fit

10. 10

    Implementation, Sustainability, Equity, and Responsible Spread

11. 11

    Nursing Considerations

12. 12

    Conclusion

13. 13

    Section 16

This Course Satisfies

Requirement summaries come from our state requirement records. All Users of Fast CE For Less’s website and content are responsible for knowing their state’s license and renewal requirements.

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