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In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report that pinpointed medical error as the cause of 100,000 hospital patient deaths annually (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 1999). The report highlighted the decentralization and fragmentation of care in an increasingly complex health care delivery system as an important component of medical error (Kohn et al., 1999; Ouslander, Bonner, Herndon, & Schutes, 2014; Romano, Segal, & Pollack, 2015). Over the past 20 years, complexity of health care delivery has continued to increase (Romano et al., 2015). Despite countless quality and safety initiatives, preventable patient harm remains a major issue (National Patient Safety Foundation, 2015).
Health care educators in all disciplines, including advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) educators, have integrated quality and safety education into foundational professional competencies to immerse students in safe practice from the beginning of their professional career (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2011, 2012; Nasca, Weiss, & Bagian, 2014; Stoller, Taylor, & Farver, 2013). Despite much attention focused on patient quality and safety since the 1999 IOM report was published, there has been little sustained improvement (Federico, 2015). Exposing students in health care disciplines to the importance of quality and safety early on in professional education seems to have not had the effect on patient harm that was expected. Perhaps awareness of the issue and education about how to resolve it are not sufficient.
One factor has remained constant over the past 20 years: the decentralization and fragmentation of care in a complex health care delivery system. Decentralization and care fragmentation are not solely related to care delivery itself; rather, they also are related to the complex network of interpersonal relationships within which care is delivered. The practice of nursing on all levels is grounded in interpersonal relationships, including APRN education (D'Antonio, Beeber, Sills, & Naegle, 2014). APRNs are positioned on interprofessional teams such that they can interact across the health care system, bridging potential interpersonal communication gaps and facilitating relationships (Weller, Boyd, & Cumin, 2014). Delivery of safe, quality care in many ways relies on APRNs' demonstration of leadership, communication, and teamwork (AACN, 2011, 2012; Barnsteiner et al., 2013).
Emotional intelligence (EI), described as the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions in self and others, comprises a key...