“You never stop learning” is a mantra nurses know well. Great nurses keep developing clinical judgment, communication and leadership skills during nursing school, in new nurse residency programs and when inspired to continue their professional development.

Quality care and patient safety depend on it. Nursing Quality Indicators, the newest addition to Healthcare Learning Innovation’s Virtual Clinical Scenario portfolio, challenges learners and certified nurses with a series of patients who present symptoms directly related to AACN BSN Essentials II. Because outcomes are so important today, Nursing Quality Indicators also teaches and tests learners on concepts specific to AACN BSN Essential V: Healthcare Policy, Finance, and Regulatory Environments.

The goal is to understand how clinical judgments, nursing decisions, communications and actions impact four nursing quality indicators:

  • Structure – The mix of nurses assigned to the patient, including consideration of expertise and staff turnover
  • Process – How the decision affects patient assessment, care and nursing satisfaction
  • Outcome – The direct reflection of clinical judgments to the quality of care
  • Cost – The way decisions can reduce operational costs or improve productivity

Using Gamification for Applying Knowledge, Solving Problems and Improving Care

Nursing Quality Indicators puts learners into two distinct roles. First, the learner is the nurse, making judgments and being evaluated on how their observational and problem-solving skills affect patients, staff and costs. We call that feature “Discovery.” In the second role, “Applications,” learners are observers tasked with predicting how another nurse’s decisions impacts quality indicators. Learners don’t just make choices, they also must provide written rationale for their decisions. Not only is knowledge ingrained and applied, but it can also be a catalyst for improving care and controlling costs.

We provide resources, including the background, electronic medical record (EMR), test results and imaging for each patient. We also provide APA references and tutorial videos that help learners really dig into the 50 different real-world patient situations to make the connection between their actions and the outcomes.

The content complements nursing program courses such as Healthcare Delivery & Quality Outcomes and Healthcare Policy and Regulation. Just like our other virtual clinical scenarios and simulations, a truly comprehensive Faculty Guide comes with the software. Nursing Quality Indicators features auto-grading, and after completing a level the learner and instructor can access a post-level assessment report.

Nursing Quality Indicators – New Nurse Training that Smooths the Transition 

In a previous blog post, Trevor Rasmussen, Lead Developer for Healthcare Learning Innovations, said that a pillar in our product development strategy is to ask: “What are some of the skills that new nurses straight out of nursing school lack?” Nursing Quality Indicators directly addresses that question and goes further by delivering RN-to-BSN accredited instruction as well as new nurse training that smooths the transition from academia to clinical or hospital environments.

“You never stop learning” is a mantra for nurses. “We’re obsessed with education,” is a mantra for us. The way we look at it, education includes not just what we provide to students and professionals at any stage in their career, but also what we keep learning from our clients, educators, administrators and users.

Nursing Quality Indicators will be available in January 2020! To learn more about our latest virtual clinical scenario. Go to www.healthcarelearninginnovations.com/nursing-quality-indicators/.