State Boards of Nursing and the Bridge to Quality

The 2003 Institute of Medicine report, Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality, delineated a set of core competencies for health care professionals-providing patient-centered care, working in interdisciplinary teams, using evidence-based practice, applying quality improvement processes, and using informatics. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which these core competencies have been incorporated in the rules and regulations of state boards of nursing in the United States as required curricular content for professional nursing programs. A research team compiled state boards of nursing regulations related to prelicensure nursing curricula from all 50 states, and content analysis was performed. Eight states incorporated all five competencies in their regulations. Other states incorporated some of the five competencies; evidence-based practice and informatics were the competencies most frequently excluded from state regulations. The lack of emphasis on these competencies has implications for the ongoing development of the profession of nursing.