Simmons College

Quality Imp. in Health Care

This is an elective course in the Simmons Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, but students in any clinical discipline or those planning to lead health care programs or organizations would benefit from this course. The course focuses on the knowledge, skills and attitudes that when acquired and applied effectively, can assure a high quality and safe patient and family health care experience in a variety of practice settings. The importance of setting aims, applying statistical methods to measure variation, hypothesis identification and planning change using the PDCA (plan, do, check, and act) cycle form the basis of the course. Current health policy issues related to assuring safe, high quality, effective, equitable, timely, patient-centered and efficient care (Institute of Medicine [IOM] 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007) will be addressed.