Professional Integrity and Ethical Considerations in Simulation.

As healthcare providers, ethical decisions are woven into the fabric of our profession from bedside care to the use of simulation as an educational pedagogy. Simulation as a method for healthcare education began in response to ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. Educators require an interactive approach to education that will keep patients, learners, and faculty psychologically safe, decrease errors in clinical practice, and engage participants, all of which are inherent in simulation-based experiences.

Decreasing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections in Urologic Oncology Patients Discharged With an Indwelling Urinary Catheter: A Quality Improvement Project.

Purpose: Few strategies exist regarding decreasing catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) in the outpatient urologic oncology population discharged with an indwelling urinary catheter (IUC).

Design: A quality improvement methodology using a premeasurement-postmeasurement structure was used to study the impact of process interventions on reducing CAUTIs.

Methods: Creation of IUC outpatient materials, an "IUC Removal Form," and bundling IUC supplies were translated to an outpatient and perioperative setting to reduce CAUTIs.

Implementing the COPA model in nursing education and practice settings: promoting competence, quality care, and patient safety.

The Competency Outcomes and Performance Assessment Model (COPA) prepares learners for effective role performance in the workplace by delineating comprehensive, core clinical behaviors that provide evidence of competence. This article explores the experiences of COPA model implementation in two nursing programs and a statewide nurse internship program. The article describes the challenges and benefits of implementation, discusses the transition from a traditional to an outcomes- and competency-based curriculum, and examines the process of assessment, with a focus on the faculty role.

Transformational leadership: implications for nursing leaders in facilities seeking magnet designation.

A perioperative nurse leader's ability to effect positive change and inspire others to higher levels of achievement is related to his or her leadership style in the practice setting and the leadership style that is present across the organization. The American Nurses Credentialing Center's Magnet™ designation and redesignation process requires the demonstration of transformational leadership as one of the components of excellence. Transformational leadership can increase nurses' job satisfaction and commitment to the organization and organizational culture.

Using quality and safety education for nurses to enhance competency outcome performance assessment: a synergistic approach that promotes patient safety and quality outcomes.

As nursing programs respond to vital initiatives such as Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN), nursing faculty will discover important shared values exist between competency-based curricular models and the latest call for stronger foci on safety and quality. This article describes how one university is using the QSEN competencies to enhance its competency outcome performance assessment (COPA)-based curriculum, thereby updating and strengthening its graduates' skills in quality improvement and safety. Faculty at the school found QSEN and COPA share the same concerns for promoting student competence and continuing competence in nursing practice to safeguard patient safety and quality care.

The COPA model: a comprehensive framework designed to promote quality care and competence for patient safety.

Patient safety and quality care are issues of major concern for nursing and all health care professions. Initiatives driven by these concerns have been undertaken during the past decade by organizations and agencies at the local, state, and national levels. One comprehensive framework used by many schools and agencies is Lenburg's Competency Outcomes and Performance Assessment Model (COPA).

Pertussis infection in a baccalaureate nursing program: clinical implications, emerging issues, and recommendations.

Pertussis is a significant public health problem with a dramatic rise in reported cases. Academic and clinical nursing educators are challenged to develop policies based on evolving national immunization guidelines. Of relevance to clinical educators, several outbreaks involving health care facilities and universities have been reported in the past few decades because of failure to adequately recognize pertussis infection and treat disease spread among adults and lack of control measures.