Brand New Quality Improvement Training for Perinatal Care Providers
On October 27 and 28, 2015, the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative piloted a brand new training in quality improvement for maternal and neonatal health care providers.
Developed by FPQC quality improvement leads Dr. Maya Balakrishnan and Dr. Karen Bruder, the curriculum incorporates Institute for Healthcare Improvement philosophy and TeamSTEPPS methodology to train care providers on how to improve quality of care and patient safety in their facilities.
Maya Balakrishnan and Karen Bruder assisted teams with their specific projects.
Attendees of the two-day training came from hospitals around the state in teams of 3 or more and brought with them a small-scope quality improvement project that they want to focus on in their hospitals. Coming with a project in mind made the training more relevant. They spent the first day learning about change management, identifying the problem and developing a problem statement, developing process maps, creating a key driver diagram, forming the project team and understanding team dynamics, and doing teamwork exercises. Day two of the training focused on understanding types of data and determining measures, generating solutions and sustaining change, understanding variation and Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, reporting and interpreting data, and team communication.
A hospital team member shares her process diagram with facilitator Karen Fugate
Participants expressed that although they may have been part of quality improvement before, learning the nuts and bolts of how it is done and how to share with others was worthwhile. Teams will take the information back to their hospital teams and departments and begin to improve their quality improvement processes.
Many of the training sessions included time for teams to apply what they learned in hands-on sessions related to their projects with personal assistance from trainers and facilitators. Attendees really appreciated having this personal attention. Teams also greatly enjoyed the fun learning exercises that challenged them to work as teams with Mr. Potato Head families and spaghetti and marshmallow structures!
Mr. Potato Head PDSA exercise
Marshmallow Challenge team building exercise
The lead trainers will continue to offer assistance to training attendees throughout the course of the hospitals’ 6-month QI projects, and will incorporate lessons learned from this pilot into a future repeat of this training.