The UCLA School of Nursing has been selected to participate in Transforming Care at the Bedside, a national initiative pursuing improvements in hospital-based patient care. Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the program will link 14 nursing schools with regional hospitals to create strategic partnerships across the country.

These partnerships will help future nurses learn how to identify opportunities for improvements that could enhance patient care and teach them how to advocate for the implementation of these measures.
"The complexity of hospital nursing requires a well-educated nurse to help manage the care of very sick patients," said Marie Cowan, dean of the UCLA School of Nursing. "Knowledgeable nurses can lower the length of hospital stays, reduce costs, prevent medical errors and enhance patient satisfaction, quality of care and health-related quality of life. We are very excited to have been chosen to participate in this important program."
UCLA nursing students will work with Transforming Care at the Bedside teams at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to identify where change is needed, recommend and test potential solutions, and determine if the innovations should be implemented. The program provides a vital link between the classroom and the hospital by helping nursing students understand how the time they spend working directly with patients affects the quality of care that patients receive.

"As the largest group of health professionals providing direct care to patients, nurses are in a unique position to affect the quality of care a patient receives in a hospital," said Sue Hassmiller, senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "This initiative helps nursing students understand how small changes in frontline procedures can dramatically affect quality of care and empowers them to take an active role in designing improvements throughout their careers. We're delighted and honored to have UCLA join us in our mission."

UCLA will collaborate with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to identify relevant curricula, develop concrete learning modules and share lessons learned with other U.S. nursing schools.
The program aims to enhance the quality of patient care, create more effective care teams, increase patient and staff satisfaction, and improve staff retention.

For information about the UCLA School of Nursing, visit http://www.nursing.ucla.edu. For more information about the Transforming Care at the Bedside initiative, see http://www.ihi.org/ihi/programs/transformingcareatthebedside.

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