Fourteen years of quality improvement education in healthcare: a utilisation-focused evaluation using concept mapping
Journal article, 2019

Background: The need for training in quality improvement for healthcare staff is well acknowledged, but long-term outcomes of such training are hard to evaluate. Behaviour change, improved organisational performance and results are sought for, but these variables are complex, multifactorial and difficult to assess. Aim: The purpose of this article is to explore the personal and organisational outcomes identified by participants over 14 years of university-led QI courses for healthcare professionals. Method: Inspired by the Kirkpatrick model for evaluation, we used concept mapping, a structured mixed method that allows for richness of data to be captured and visualised by inviting stakeholders throughout the process. In total, 331 previous course participants were included in the study by responding to two prompts, and 19 stakeholders taking part in the analysis process by doing the sorting. Result: Two maps, one for personal outcomes and one for organisational outcomes, show clusters of the responses from previous course participants and how the outcomes relate to each other in meta-clusters. Both maps show possible long-term outcomes described by the previous course participants. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that it is possible that training in quality improvement with a strong experiential pedagogical approach fosters a long-term improvement capability for the course participants and, even more important, a long-term improvement capability (and increased improvement skill) in their respective organisations.

continuing professional development

healthcare quality improvement

quality improvement

continuous quality improvement

Author

Frida Smith

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

Regional Cancer Centre West

Patrik Alexandersson

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

Bo Bergman

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Service Management and Logistics

Lisa Vaughn

Regional Cancer Centre West

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

University of Cincinnati

Andreas Hellström

Quality Sciences

BMJ open quality

23996641 (eISSN)

Vol. 8 4 e000795- e000795

Subject Categories

Work Sciences

Other Medical Sciences not elsewhere specified

Applied Psychology

DOI

10.1136/bmjoq-2019-000795

PubMed

31909214

More information

Latest update

4/5/2022 6