Concentration in Healthcare Quality and Safety

Healthcare delivery is complex and constantly changing. A primary mission of leading healthcare organizations is to advance the quality of patient care by striving to deliver care that is safe, effective, efficient, timely, cost effective, and patient-centered. The goal of this inter professional course is to provide students with a broad overview of the principles and tools of quality improvement and patient safety in health care while also guiding them through the steps of developing a quality improvement project. It will provide a foundation for students or practicing clinicians who are interested in quality improvement and patient safety research, administration, or clinical applications. As part of this course, students will design and plan for a real quality improvement project in their area of interest within healthcare using the methods and tools taught in the course.

Taught by: Jennifer S. Myers, MD and Heather Greysen, PhD, CRNP

Course usually offered in fall term

Also Offered As: NURS 612

Activity: Lecture

1.0 Course Unit

This blended online/in-classroom graduate level course integrates principles of systems thinking with foundational concepts in patient safety. Utilizing complexity theories, students assess healthcare practices and identify factors that contribute to medical errors and impact patient safety. Using a clinical microsystem framework, learners assess a potential patient safety issue and create preventive systems. Lessons learned from the science of safety are utilized in developing strategies to enhance safe system redesign. Core competencies for all healthcare professionals are emphasized, content is applicable for all healthcare providers including, but not limited to, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, social workers and healthcare administrators, and may be taken as an elective by non-majors.

Taught by: Susan Keim, PhD, MSN, MS, CRNP and Kathy Shaw, MD, MSCE

Course usually offered in spring term

Also Offered As: NURS 650

Activity: Lecture

1.0 Course Unit

The purpose of the capstone quality improvement project is to provide students with the opportunity to lead and experience each of the 5 phases of quality improvement work: Define – Measure – Analyze – Improve – Control. Although most students identify a project in the Fall semester and execute subsequent phases of the work in the Spring semester, students may choose to formally begin their project at another time. Students may change their capstone project focus with approval of the capstone director no later than one semester prior to graduation from the healthcare quality and safety certificate or masters program.

Taught by: Jessica Hart, MD and Patricia Macolino RN, MSN

Activity: Lecture

1.0 Course Unit