Take the Lead on Healthcare Quality Improvement

The 5-week course provides healthcare professionals across the world with the basic knowledge and skills to improve the quality and safety of health care using process improvement methods.  Quality and safety in healthcare is an international priority.  In the United States, it is a driver for change that is mandated by regulation, accreditation and reimbursement. Therefore it is essential to educate all healthcare professionals, faculty and students about contemporary approaches to improve quality and safety, supporting the goal to move quality improvement out of the ‘quality department’ and into the ‘hands of the professionals who deliver care.

This is an interprofessional course. The audience for the course includes front-line healthcare professionals, faculty and students in health professions schools, and other interested individuals. It is most relevant for nurses, physicians, pharmacists, social workers, therapists, dietitians, and healthcare administrators. An interdisciplinary framework is used that includes both theory and experiential components. The emphasis is on acquiring competence in quality improvement methods and teamwork and collaboration. The course will transform healthcare professionals to not only ‘do their work, but also to ‘improve their work.

Upon completion of the course, learners will be able to apply methods of continuous quality improvement to:

• Define quality and safety problems in the healthcare system;
• Assess organizational contextual factors and benchmarks of best practices in quality and safety;and
• Design, implement, and evaluate tests of change to improve healthcare systems.

Learners will integrate the principles of interprofessional teamwork as an essential feature of the improvement process.

For each of five weeks there are two 1-hour didactic modules with active learning that include:

• Videos of core learning content (see syllabus outline);
• Lessons learned from the field that include stories from healthcare professionals;
• Active interaction using assignments and case studies; 
• Reflective exercises on the discussion board to apply the learning to the participants’ work settings; and 
• Required readings in advance of each module.

Evaluation consists of achievement of learner competencies that are assessed with:

• Pre and post course evaluation for QI knowledge, attitudes, systems thinking and pre and post module evaluation of self-efficacy;
• Quiz after each module; and
• Learner evaluation of the course.

Through case study analysis and individual clinically based projects, participants will experience and reflect on the dimensions of improvement:

• Explain the system of care; 
• Identify factors related to psychology of change;
• Differentiate the types of variation (common and special) present in a process; and
• Describe one Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle.

Through work within teams within the clinical setting, participants will:

• Describe why and how disciplines, each representing a body of scientific knowledge, must work together to achieve continual improvement of health care;
• Demonstrate an appreciation for various health disciplines and a realization that improvement will occur by cooperative problem solving;
• Analyze the contributions of each discipline to the group project; 
• Identify ways to improve collaborative efforts; and
• Demonstrate the ability to give and receive constructive feedback.

The course is divided into modules addressing:

Week #       Module #                                                     Content

1                         1              Overview of Healthcare Quality Improvement

                           2              Evidence for Improvement, Literature, Internet and More

2                         3              Interprofessional Teams for Improvement Work

                           4              Knowledge of Systems

3                         5              Targeting Your Aim from Global to Specific

                           6              Measuring for Improvement

4                         7              Data Variation and Control Charts

                           8              The Human Side of QI: Psychology of Change

5                         9              Pilot, Implement & Spread Change: The Model for                                                          Improvement 

                          10             Putting it All Together: Facilitating & Leading Change

Mary A. Dolansky, PhD, RN
Associate Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing; Director, QSEN Institute; VA Quality Senior Nurse Fellow, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA

Shirley Moore, PhD, RN, FAAN
Edward J. and Louise Mellen Professor of Nursing and Associate Dean of Research
Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing

Mamta K Singh, MD, MS
Physician Director of the Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA; Associate Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine