Evidence Scan In Healthcare

Evidence scan:

Quality improvement training for healthcare professionals
August 2012

Identify Innovate Demonstrate Encourage

Contents

Key messages

3

1. Scope

6

2. Examples of training

10

3. Most effective approaches

27

4. Important messages

33

References 39

Health Foundation evidence scans provide information to help those involved in improving the quality of healthcare understand what research is available on particular topics.
Evidence scans provide a rapid collation of empirical research about a topic relevant to the Health
Foundation 's work. Although all of the evidence is sourced and compiled systematically, they are not systematic reviews. They do not seek to summarise theoretical
Leading and making change in healthcare: Methods and skills for making change in complex organisations, including the strategic management of people and their work.
Collaboration: Knowledge and skills needed to work effectively in groups and understand the perspectives and responsibilities of others.
Developing new, locally useful knowledge: Recognising and being able to develop new knowledge, including through empirical testing.
Social context and accountability: Understanding the social context of healthcare, including financing.
Professional subject matter: Having relevant professional knowledge and an ability to apply and connect the other seven domains. This includes core competencies published by professional boards and accrediting organisations.

Standards

It was only relatively recently that quality improvement techniques began to be implemented formally in healthcare and training has reflected this growing interest.51 This has been accompanied by the standardisation and institutionalisation of quality improvement via standards and
First, quality improvement implies a review of practices at the organisational level and a collective effort to change, rather than focusing on the individual. Second, once the problem has been identified, quality improvement initiatives tailor a solution to the problem and focus on addressing root causes. Third, quality improvement often involves training as one of the solutions.61
A description of the underlying tenets of different quality improvement models and associated training is outside the scope of this scan. However it is important to note that most training approaches target individual practitioners or managers as the ‘change agent,’ seeking to improve knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviours through educating individuals in change management or quality improvement methods. Some approaches target teams, but most do not take a wider systems approach to quality improvement training. Though the training itself may consider the