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. Nursing faculty whose teaching is focused in a competency-based curriculum are well positioned to respond to the call to integrate QSEN competencies into their curricula.