Infusing Systems and Quality Improvement Throughout an Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum.

BACKGROUND: Nurse educators are constantly revising curricula to ensure that graduating nurses have the requisite skills for today's fast-paced, rapidly changing, nonlinear complex care environment. Key nursing education and practice organizations identify systems thinking and quality improvement as essential skills for nurses at the point of care.

METHOD: Systems thinking and quality improvement were embedded across a Bachelor of Nursing (BSN) curriculum in a manner that does not dislocate other, more traditional content.

RESULTS: To date, approximately 500 students have been exposed to the new BSN curriculum. Sustainable approaches, preliminary results, lessons learned, and recommendations for sustainability and replication are discussed.

CONCLUSION: Integrating systems thinking and quality improvement with traditional content across the entire undergraduate curriculum exposes students to increasingly sophisticated real-world experiences that highlight the relevance and significance of these skills in the health care context. Feedback from practice partners suggests this approach helps bridge the education and practice gap. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(12):752-757.].