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Left, Teri Chenot, Associate Professor in JU’s Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences, with Dr. Roberta Christopher, Assistant Professor, are co-directors of the new QSEN Institute Regional Center at Jacksonville University, which will be officially launched during a statewide Patient Safety Forum Friday, July 9, at JU. They are sitting in the STAR Lab with one of the Bibles of QSEN on the table, titled “Quality and Safety in Nursing: A Competency Approach to Improving Outcomes.”

National experts to discuss patient safety challenges and trends June 9 at inaugural Patient Safety Forum at Jacksonville University

The first statewide/regional conference bringing together hundreds of health care leaders, nurses, physicians and students to hear from renowned experts on patient safety is set for Friday, June 9, at Jacksonville University.

The Patient Safety Forum also celebrates the formal launch of JU’s premier founding Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Institute Regional Center at Jacksonville University, now one of only three in the country.

“We will gather at this critically important juncture in U.S. health care history to look at the challenges facing patient safety and averting medical errors,” said forum co-organizer and JU QSEN center co-director Dr. Teri Chenot, Associate Professor in JU’s Keigwin School of Nursing. “We will also embark upon a pioneering journey at JU as our QSEN Institute Regional Center at Jacksonville University provides the first resource of its kind for the healthcare community in the Southeast.”

Speakers at the event include:

  • Robert Wears, Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, UF Health Science Center Jacksonville, who will speak on “The Evolution of Patient Safety” and also report provocative findings on why patient safety hasn’t progressed as it should, to be discussed in more detail in his forthcoming book on the topic.
  • John James, formerly chief toxicologist for NASA, who founded Patient Safety America after the death of his 19-year-old son in 2002 because of uninformed and unethical medical care, will speak on “The Heart and Mind of Patient Safety.”
  • Mary Dolansky, Director of the national QSEN Institute and Associate Professor in the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University, will discuss “The QSEN Journey – Past, Present, and Future.”

To improve access to safe, high-quality healthcare for all patients, a key component of the forum is inter-professional collaboration and learning, with about 200 interdisciplinary healthcare professionals including healthcare administrators, healthcare providers, nurse leaders, academic faculty, educators, quality/risk managers, medical residents, and students from across the region attending.

The event will celebrate establishment of the new QSEN Institute Regional Center at Jacksonville University, which will foster an international network of nurses and other healthcare professionals who contribute to quality and safety educational resources and scholarship. The center will provide services throughout the Southeast.

Co-directors of the center are Dr. Chenot, who is also a board member of the national QSEN Institute, and Dr. Roberta Christopher, Assistant Professor in JU’s Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences.

The forum is made possible by a three-year, $44,883 grant from the Florida Blue Foundation.