Healthcare organisations around the world are adopting new strategies to improve the quality of patient care in response to reports of negative patient outcomes and cuts to public service expenditure. However, many nurses lack the knowledge, skills and attitude to improve the systems within which they work, calling for a radical redesign of nursing education to integrate quality improvement science. This article describes the integration of quality improvement education within undergraduate nursing education programmes in Wales through collaboration between higher education institutions, NHS Wales and the UK Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School.