An ethical exploration of quality and safety initiatives in nurse practice.

Current professional healthcare literature is filled with the call for quality and safety initiatives in the provision of healthcare. The popular media frequently reports on the need for healthcare reform and the need for cost-saving measures as healthcare costs skyrocket. Reported medical and nurse errors are on the rise and the discipline of nursing is responding to the call with interprofessional quality and safety initiatives that are intended to reduce errors and promote safety in cross-disciplinary healthcare practices. This column begins an ethical exploration on the topic from a humanbecoming theoretical perspective regarding the need for theory-guided nurse practice and possible meanings and implications for future disciplinary nurse practice.