Quality Improvement: To IRB or Not to IRB, that is the Question (0.25h)

This educational offering provides 0.25 CEU and was presented in the Clinical track. The course includes a PowerPoint (in PDF) and an MP3 audio file from the presentation originally shared at the 14th National Doctors of Nursing Practice Conference at the Swissotel in Chicago, August 2021.

Karin Smith, DNP, RN
Dr. Karin Smith is the DNP Program Director and an Assistant Professor at Bradley University in Peoria, IL. She earned her BSN from the University of Iowa in 2001 and her MS in Nursing Education from the University of Oklahoma in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Smith earned a DNP with an emphasis in leadership from Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing in Peoria, IL.
Dr. Smith has clinical experience in critical care nursing, leadership, and performance improvement, including the use of Six Sigma methodology.

Purpose
The purpose of this presentation is to identify the boundaries of quality improvement and human subject research in terms of ethical and regulatory oversight. Classification of a project as quality improvement does not absolve it from the potential to cause harm.  DNP prepared nurses are obligated to familiarize themselves and seek guidance from the Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements (American Nurses Association, 2001) as well as the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2013) when developing quality improvement activities to ensure the protection of human rights