The term quality improvement may sound a little intimidating but this page aims to dispel that feeling by giving you a basic introduction to quality improvement so you can understand more about it and what it involves.
The page is divided into three sections “What is Quality Improvement” for an introduction to QI, an example of a Care Home’s Qi project to show that you can do it and “Quality Improvement Resources” for further reading, courses and Qi tools.
What is Quality Improvement?
Everyone can do it!
The term quality improvement may sound very complicated or even slightly scary but remember making positive (improvement) changes are actually something people do all the time in everyday real life – whether it’s changing your diet to be healthier or changing the time of morning handover so all relevant people can attend.
Basically it’s having an idea to improve something. Then making a goal and making plans for changes to achieve that goal. You will measure progress along the way as well as at the end. It is not always a straight process sometimes steps will need repeated or changed depending on how things are going. You will also need to look back to make sure you are still working towards the goal you set but it may be that your goal changes to a degree as you progress.
Quality improvement uses methods and tools to guide you through the process to achieve your aim/goal and make the change/changes you want to make.
The methods and tools provide a clear smooth process for carrying out and evidencing your work so you can clearly see what’s going well and what’s maybe not going too well, and in the end whether you have achieved the change and exactly how you did it – this can be useful for many things, including:
- Demonstrating to your team/residents/relatives why this change may be useful
- If someone wants to do your change too – they will know what to do but also that the idea is based on evidence rather than just thinking
- If you want to take the idea further and need to apply for funding or permission
Proving Everyone Can do it
Although there are teams such as the Quality Improvement Team for Care Homes and Primary Care Setting who can help you with a quality improvement project you can also carry out a project yourself, here is an example of a Care Home doing it for themselves.
Pei Shan Ng from Camilla House lead and completed a QI project creating a skin tear E-kit and instruction card to improve skin tear management.
The project objective was to improve staff knowledge and accessibility to appropriate dressing products when skin tears occur, prompting the implementation of the skin tear E-Kit.
The E-kit and instruction card was piloted in 8 selected Care Homes under Sanctuary Care with good feedback.
Feedback collected in the trial period showcased the positive impact that the Skin Tear E-Kit has had in the pilot sites.
Quality Improvement Resources
Whatever your interest in quality improvement is, the following resources will provide you with a wealth of information, including:
- What quality improvement involves
- Resources for carrying out your own quality improvement project
- Seeing the methods we as a quality improvement team may use
- The tools and methods available for quality improvement
Turas
Some links on this webpage may require you to log into TURAS to view content – do not worry anyone can have a TURAS account and you can sign up using the link below.
Care Inspectorate – How we support improvement
It has information on:
- Improvement support section – including a 6 part online course for improving supporting older people to live active healthy lives
- Improvement guidance, advice and resources
- Documents such as – Supporting Improvement it’s Everyone’s Business
Health Care Improvement – ihub
Details on:
- Current projects for improvement within healthcare settings
- Tools and resources made from the above projects – for making specific improvements in certain areas
Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership
Three e-learning modules:
- Definition of Clinical Quality
- Quality Improvement Principles
- Use of Quality Improvement Tools
There is a short certificated self assessment following completion of the modules to test your knowledge.
Lothian Quality Academy – Tools and Resources
It has information on:
- The quality improvement process
- Quality improvement tools
- Examples and videos of quality improvement work
- Quality improvement information for Patient Experience
- Quality Improvement Information for Staff experience
- Online courses you or your staff could do for learning more about quality improvement and undertaking project
NES Quality Improvement Zone
Site run by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Quality Improvement team. It has information on:
- The quality improvement process
- Quality improvement tools
- Online courses you or your staff could do for learning more about quality improvement and undertaking projects
Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC)
SSSC have produced a quality improvement (QI) learning resource to help you improve the quality of outcomes for people who use services.
The resource includes stories showing how QI tools and techniques have supported three services in Scotland to improve how they deliver services to the people that matter most.
Sonia Sparkles
Sonia Sparkles uses almost comic strip like illustrations to explain Quality Improvement concepts. These can be used in a variety of ways:
- To explain to others quality improvement
- To help you think about what you are doing
- To guide your work
- To inspire yourself or others
- There are also illustrations for:
- Healthcare
- The workplace
- Wellbeing
- General kindness and nice sentiments
