Improving Quality in Neonatal Care Through Competency-Based Simulation

Abstract

Approximately 440,000 patients die each year due to preventable errors. Although human error is inevitable, we can mitigate this risk by enhancing skills and clinical competencies by improving the quality of neonatal care through competency-based simulation. Clinical skills are learned activities necessary to function within an environment. Skills gained during pre-licensure nursing education, on-site clinical training, and experience as a clinical care provider, collectively demonstrate a clinician’s overall competence to function within a clinical setting. Simulation is a method of supporting nurses to establish, maintain, and remediate competency-based skills for safe and effective healthcare. Evidence suggests that simulation improve clinical skills and maintain patient safety. With this knowledge, many professional organizations have adopted and set standards for the use of simulation, as an educational methodology, to improve clinician skills and competence providing only the highest quality care to neonates within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.