title: Teaching a Systems Approach: An Innovative Quality Improvement Project.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nurse practitioners are required to navigate complex health care systems. Quality improvement (QI) projects provide the opportunity for nurse practitioner students to learn systems knowledge and improve health care outcomes in patient populations. A gap in the literature exists around how to systematically teach, apply, and measure QI curricular objectives at the master's level.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six faculty evaluated the QI project for the psychiatric nurse practitioner master's program by identifying the most challenging QI concepts for students to apply, revising their teaching strategies to address gaps, and retrospectively evaluating the outcomes of these curriculum changes by comparing student outcomes before and after the curricular changes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant difference was noted on QI project performance between students in the 2014 and 2015 graduating classes, measured by the scores earned on students' final papers (t[92] = 1.66, p = .05, d = .34, r(2) = .0289).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Theoretical principles of adult and cooperative learning were used to inform curricular changes to enhance student's acquisition of QI skills.
authors.forename: Vanya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hamrin
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vick
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brame
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.forename: Letizia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vanderhoef
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000193:education*; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration*