QSEN

What is QSEN?

The QSEN (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses) project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in an effort to advance safe, effective and quality healthcare in response to the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) reports, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System (IOM, 2000). Initially, the QSEN initiative was designed to help academic nursing professors combine competencies for safety and quality into education. Now, QSEN would like to spread to all nurses, in all nursing environments.

Here at Kaiser Permanente, SCAL, we have found the QSEN model to be useful as a framework for nurse-sensitive indicator/patient safety programs. The model provides the ‘what and how’ nurses deliver safe, effective, high-quality care to patients.

QSEN’s mission is to ensure that nurses everywhere have the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) necessary to continuously improve the safety and quality of healthcare. Linda Cronenwett, the founder of QSEN has been quoted as saying, “QSEN helps nurses identify and bridge the gaps between what is and what should be and help nurses focus their work from the lens of quality and safety,” (Dolansky and Moore, 2013).

Click the links below for more information on QSEN:

• QSEN Model Explanation
• QSEN Model Usage