Chapter Challenge: QI in the Curriculum Search Results

Results Submitted by IHI Open School students & faculty

In April 2009, we asked students and facultyto explore their school’s curriculum to find out whether quality improvement and patient safety are included, and if so, where. We’d like to share a few highlights from the May Chapter Chall enge – searching for Quality Improvement in your school’s curriculum. Each school has a unique approach in teaching its students about components of quality improvement and patient safety. This is not an exhaustive curriculum search, but rather an overview of opportunities to learn about quality improvement and patient safety found by students and faculty around the world.

Duke University (Durham, North Carolina): Medical students take a week-long patient safety clinical core course between their first two clinical clerkships. There are relevant courses, such as health care quality, pay for performance, a relevant clinical core series, and a relevant clinical core week. The medical students are also required to complete a quality improvement project during their first clinical clerkship in family medicine. Lastly, the Department of Medicine faculty includes IHI videos in lectures.

Submitted by: Aasim Saeed (medical student)

University of Dundee (Dundee, Scotland): Medical students learn about quality improvement and patient safety through their foundations of medical practice, system-based learning, and task-based learning courses. A few of the lecturers who teach about QI/PS include the COO from a local hospital, an airline pilot and crew resource management expert, and a WHO "Patients for Patient Safety" champion. Currently, the medicine faculty is looking to integrate nursingstudents into a few of the medicine courses.

Submitted by: Peter Davey, MD (medicine faculty)

Instituto Tecnólogico y de Estudios Superiories de Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico): The school has a healthcare quality improvement residency for full- time post-graduate physicians. This is a three year program developed for residents. Topics covered include communication skills, teambuilding, change and improvement, and innovation in healthcare.

Submitted by: Arturo Martinez (healthcare quality improvement resident)

Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (Akron, Ohio): NEOCOM integrates quality improvement teaching into the medical student clerkship topics within surgery, medicine, family medicine and obstetrics.

Submitted by: Zachary Jenkins (medical student)

Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania): There are two relevant courses at TJU: quality measures and outcomes analysis as well as performance improvement. Other aspects of QI/PS are integrated into several other courses, a few of which include: health policy, pharmacy practice, radiologic sciences – patient care

, and healthcare delivery systems. There is also an interclerkship day that focuses on the importance of QI/PS in clinical practice.

Submitted by: Valerie Pracilio (population health student)

University of California – San Francisco (San Francisco, California): Nursing students have the opportunity to take a course in patient safety and quality of care, nursing workforce and health systems as well as measuring outcomes of health care. Generally, QI and PS are taught as separate courses. Students in the IHI Open School Chapter have an opportunity to join local quality improvement projects

Submitted by: Roxanne O'Brien RN, MS, PhD(c) (nursing faculty)

University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky): Physician Assistant students learn about QI/PS

within their clinical lecture series, clinical lab procedures, and the emergency medicine clerkship. Kentucky students also participate in the national CLARION case study competition, an interprofessional case study competition.

Submitted by: Kevin M. Schuer, MPH, PA-C (health sciences faculty)

University of Oslo (Oslo, Norway): Medical students take courses in evidence-based medicine, leadership training, and quality. Courses relevant to quality are required, not optional. Students have the option to conduct an “observe through the patient’s eyes” project during their 5^th year of medical school and have the opportunity to conduce a quality improvement project during their 6^th year of medical school.

Submitted by: Jo-Inge Myhre (medical student)

University of San Diego (San Diego, California): Medicine, nursing, and pharmacy students learn about QI/PS in the policy and health systems course, scope of practice in nursing course, and clinical nurse leadership course – to name a few. Nurses, pharmacists, and local guest lecturers teach these topics. Students also have the opportunity to develop a change proposal for a clinical unit within a clinical agency to improve quality of care and/or promote patient safety. They also develop and implement a community project that improves population health in a specific community. Students also have an opportunity to join a quality improvement project through the Graduate Nursing Students Association (GNSA) and the IHI Open School Chapter.

Submitted by: Ben Brenners (nursing student)

From these examples, we know quality improvement and patient safety are integrated in a variety of ways at different depths. We urge students and faculty to continue their work to integrate quality improvement and patient safety training into all health profession programs. If you would like to share your school’s quality improvement and patient safety curriculum integration, please complete the template that follows and submit to the Open School team.

Thank you to the schools that participated!