The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has funded the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project for three phases to date. The overall goal through all phases of QSEN is to address the challenge of preparing future nurses with the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in which they work.
In order to accomplish this goal, six competencies were defined in Phase I of the project. These competencies included five from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) -patient centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement and informatics- as well as safety. In addition to these definitions, sets of knowledge, skills and attitudes for each of the six competencies were created for use in nursing pre-licensure programs (Cronenwett, et. al., 2007). The QSEN competencies are:
