Several organizations guide nursing education and determine the knowledge, skills, and attitudes nurses need. Developing and refining the identified skills are steps in the nurse’s lifetime learning process. This activity introduces some of those guiding principles.

QSEN

In 2003, the Health and Medicine Division* (HMD) defined nursing competencies. QSEN faculty further defined those competencies for quality and safety.

Read the QSEN Pre-licensure KSAs to familiarize yourself with them.

AACN

Based on HMD recommendations, AACN developed The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education to address the standard core knowledge required of all health care professionals.

Read The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education to understand the requirements of a BSN-prepared nurse upon graduation.

Consistent with The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education, AACN also developed cultural competencies to provide educational structure to meet the evolving needs of increasingly diverse populations.

Read Cultural Competency in Baccalaureate Nursing Education. This document presents the competencies as well as a summary and rationale for their importance in practice.

Genetic and Genomic Nursing

Endorsed by the AACN and published by the American Nurses Association, Essentials of Genetic and Genomic Nursing defines a minimum basis for preparing the nursing workforce as genetic and genomic science advances.

Read Essentials of Genetic and Genomic Nursing to understand the minimum genetic and genomic competency expected of every nurse.

*Formerly the Institute of Medicine