Where can I learn about Quality improvement?
- ‘Quality Improvement in Healthcare: the Case for Change’ is an online course done through FutureLearn in collaboration with the University of Bath. It covers some of the background to healthcare improvement and introduces you to quality improvement theory. The course is free to access but you have to pay for membership if you want to access tests or get a certificate of completion.
- The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School has lots of high quality e-learning modules on its website. Access is subscription-only but your hospital or institution may have access (email your foundation administrator to find out).
- Do it yourself! Simply search key terms such as ‘PDSA cycle’, ‘QI vs audit’, ‘process mapping’, ‘run charts’.
Other Quality Improvement resources:
There are loads of great organisations providing resources to support QI work. Here are a select few you may find helpful:
- BMJ Open Quality is an open access journal publishing peer-reviewed healthcare improvement articles and initiatives. We recommend having a look through some articles for inspiration. This is also a good place to start if you are trying to get a QI project published as they publish a high proportion of articles they receive.
- Most of the Royal Colleges now provide resources and training on quality improvement for trainees and members. If you are interested in a particular speciality it might be worth looking at their website to find out about QI projects that may be happening near you.
- Explore the Health Foundation website which provides links to Quality Improvement webinars, events and the patient safety resource centre.
- Check out the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) website. It’s worth signing up to their newsletter so you can hear about upcoming local events and resources.
- The Q Initiative is a network connecting quality improvement experts and enthusiasts from across the UK. You can browse some of their projects on their website. Members of the network can access QI events and training courses nationwide.
- The Point of Care Foundation aims to ‘humanise healthcare’ and provides evidence-based resources for teams aiming to improve patient experience and staff wellbeing.
- The King’s Fund is a charity working towards improving health and care in England. They provide reports on important topics in improvement, events and courses.
- The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) focuses on measurement in healthcare improvement. Their website includes links to national audits and e-learning resources for healthcare professionals.
Training Resources
- Quality Improvement Training - Bronze: https://improvementacademy.org/e-learning/quality-improvement-training-bronze/
- Severn Postgraduate Medical Education Silver QI Training Dates - https://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/events/?Category=130