Dear Editor:
I write in response to the topic of Continuing Competence. I am increasingly concerned that hospital Quality Improvement (QI) committees are being misused as a means of retaliation against hospital staff, employees, and associated individuals rather than being used as a means of improving quality of care and professional performance. In my experience with QI, I am seeing an increasing amount of petty concerns processed through QI when these concerns might be more appropriately addressed by improved communication and conflict resolution skills. Not only does such misuse of QI harm the professionals concerned, it also paints nurses as disrespectful and vindictive persons, rather than as the educated and talented professionals that nurses are. Treating all types of people with respect enhances the image of nursing among other disciplines and strengthens the ability of nurses to work with various professional groups.
I applaud nursing's movement toward establishing respectful and appropriate means of maintaining clinical competence as described in this series of articles.
Name withheld by request