Don't Miss Out on Nurse-Led Quality Initiatives

There are lots of reasons that it makes sense for hospitals to align themselves with nursing schools. For one thing, it's a way for schools to funnel new grads right into their careers and for hospitals to save on nurse recruitment efforts.

For another, hospitals get a chance to instill current, real-world learning and values into the next generation of nurses.

But a study shows that there's yet another reason for hospitals to work with nurses before they're even out of school: To educate them about and get them ready to participate in hospital quality improvement (QI) efforts.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality and is part of the RN Work Project, finds that nurses who are early in their careers need to step up their game when it comes to getting involved in hospital QI efforts. Despite the value of nurse-led quality improvement efforts, too few are involved. And the number of participants is not growing.

That's a major missed opportunity for hospitals, considering the positive affect nurse-led QI efforts can have on organizations.