IU School of Nursing Bloomington (IUSON BL) collaborates with nursing and resuscitation leaders Resuscitation Quality Improvement^® (RQI^®) Partners LLC, to become the first school in Indiana to introduce new digital resuscitation education.

The Indiana University School of Nursing in Bloomington (IUSON BL) has a longstanding tradition of impacting the nursing profession by producing highly skilled future nursing professionals through education, research, and innovation. This fall, IUSON BL continues that tradition by introducing a new, digital resuscitation education program that is the first of its kind in the Hoosier state.

IUSON BL has enrolled 140 nursing students, faculty, and staff in Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI), a program co-developed and launched by the American Heart Association® and Laerdal Medical in 2015 to provide sustainable quality improvement in cardiac arrest resuscitation.

Supported by the National League for Nursing (NLN), the RQI program elevates high-quality CPR skills and prepares future nursing professionals to respond to cardiac arrest events quickly, competently, and confidently—helping to improve survival rates.

Excellence powered by partnerships and innovation

“The vision of the Indiana University School of Nursing is to lead with excellence in research and education through innovation and partnerships,” said IUSON BL Associate Dean Wendy Trueblood Miller. “Collaborating with NLN in introducing the RQI program to tomorrow’s nurses to help them deliver high-quality, life-saving CPR demonstrates our commitment to this vision.

“By introducing RQI, we are placing our students on a path to continuous quality improvement and helping to position them for a more seamless transition to clinical practice. We are also furthering our culture of nursing education excellence by giving our students a head-start at elevating their resuscitation skills and competence by leveraging this innovative program.”

Each year, more than 209,000 in-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the U.S.—with survival rates in adults at about 26%. Patients who suffer a cardiac arrest must receive the highest quality CPR possible. For decades, the CPR training standard for healthcare providers has been Basic Life Support with the requirement for participants to renew their course completion card every two years. However, studies show CPR skills can diminish within three to six months following this training.

In 2018, the American Heart Association (AHA) and Laerdal, one of the world leaders in medical simulation and resuscitation training, called for a new standard of care by shifting resuscitation practice from training once every two years to verified CPR competence for healthcare professionals.

The RQI program, developed by RQI Partners, addresses AHA’s call to action. RQI is a self-directed, simulation-based program that offers hands-on CPR quality improvement sessions that measure and verify competence. RQI employs a “low-dose, high-frequency” model requiring healthcare providers to complete course assignments in short sessions every quarter on a simulation station using a specialized manikin to verify their resuscitation/CPR skills.

Last September, the National League for Nursing (NLN) announced a new partnership with Laerdal to help transform the standard of resuscitation care for cardiac arrest. Together with Laerdal, the American Heart Association, and RQI Partners, the NLN made a commitment to support RQI adoption by nursing programs at institutions of higher education—with the potential of reaching the more than 150,000 students who graduate annually from nursing and allied health education programs at U.S. colleges and universities, equipping them with the skills to deliver lifesaving intervention and improve patient outcomes.

Today, more than 2,400 hospitals and 2 million nurses participate in the RQI program. More significantly, it is estimated that 20,000 lives have been saved. IUSON BL now joins the growing list of organizations that are preparing this and future generations of nurses to maximize lifesaving resuscitation competence to help save more lives.

“In 2006, the Indiana University School of Nursing was the first institution in the country to be designated an NLN Center for Excellence for creating, promoting and maintaining an environment rooted in the teaching expertise of faculty and staff, and then in 2012, for advancing the science of nursing education,” said Dr. Beverly Malone, National League for Nursing president and CEO.

“Embracing the RQI program demonstrates why the school continues to hold this distinction today. Together, through this groundbreaking, game-changing opportunity, we are ushering in a new era in healthcare education and resuscitation preparedness. We are delighted that IUSON has joined us on this journey.”