New views of quality and safety offer new roles for nurses and midwives

Abstract

Around the world nurses, midwives and all health professionals are developing new roles and responsibilities in improving health care. By applying the science that undergirds the approach to quality improvement and safety developed in other high performance industries, health professionals are shifting from only considering personal responsibility and accountability to systems redesign. Error reporting systems in many countries and regions allow systematic analysis of near misses as well as sentinel events so that the system can be redesigned to prevent future occurrence. Health care organizations match their quality data with benchmarks established among their peers to discover gaps in quality, create quality improvement teams to close the gap, and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork to achieve improved outcomes. Nurses are challenged to create the educational approaches so nurses have the necessary skills and leadership opportunities, as illustrated in the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.