Addressing the Urgent Need for Interprofessional PSQI Training

The human costs of adverse events that result from a lack of interprofessional communication among healthcare professionals is staggering. Interprofessional education (IPE) is effective in improving communication, clinical processes, and patient outcomes while reducing healthcare errors and mortality.  Linking IPE with measurable improvements in teamwork and patient safety/quality improvement (PSQI) competencies has the potential to not only improve patient outcomes, but also to create significant savings for the U.S. healthcare system. Nursing graduate education and medical residency programs are required to meet PSQI training standards for accreditation, yet many programs struggle to incorporate adequate training. One barrier to meaningful improvements in nursing and medical graduate education programs is that patient safety and quality improvement training occurs primarily in traditional ‘siloed’ isolation within professions education programs, without incorporating the essential teamwork skills needed to effectively implement changes. The UVA "Creating a Culture of Safety" program brings together BSN-DNP students with medical residents into a structured IPE PSQI curriculum designed to prepare them to work in teams to effectively address the needs of complex patients.

The HRSA-funded "Creating a Culture of Safety" program builds on ASPIRE's long standing commitment to IPE at UVA