Teams across Newcastle Hospitals can access a range of learning opportunities from Newcastle Improvement to help make the changes that matter to them, including:
You can find out more about our training options here:
E-learning Module
We have developed an e-learning module that is designed to introduce you to Quality Improvement.
It can be accessed anytime that is convenient for you. Please search for “317 Introduction to Quality Improvement (QI)” in ESR – the session will take approximately one hour to complete and does not require you take a test to pass.
An Introduction to QI aims to:
- Introduce you to QI, explain what it is and what it means in a healthcare setting
- Explore why QI is so important for the NHS and our own Trust – how it can improve patient outcomes, staff experience and wellbeing, and environmental sustainability
- Explain the ‘Newcastle Improvement Approach’, which we can all use to do QI in this Trust, plus how you can lead or take part in QI in your own areas with video case studies from frontline staff who already have
We would like to encourage you to complete this training so you can get an understanding of how we can all work together to keep improving patient care, create better working and move towards a more sustainable future for our Trust. You can give us your feedback on the module by completing the short evaluation at the end.
Bitesize Training
Our bitesize training provides quick, accessible sessions that introduce you to Quality Improvement. Each session is around 60-90 minutes. Please email [email protected] to register your interest.
Please note these sessions are available for Newcastle Hospitals staff only.
Session 1: Get your team ready for change
Ideal for people who are about to start working on making an improvement in their area of work and want to make sure the right people are involved. The session will cover:
- Building your project team using stakeholder analysis
- Overcoming barriers to change
Session 2: What’s your problem?
Taking on an improvement project in the NHS often means we need to deal with complex problems where there is no single solution. This session is for people who want to support a team through an improvement project where the aim of the project is to solve a problem. The session will cover:
- The need to understand how we work now before making a change
- Gathering staff feedback to inform your improvement work
- Creating an environment where people feel safe to be honest about how they work
Session 3: Model for Improvement
The Model for Improvement gives us a way to measure and test our changes, to ensure that any changes we make are actually an improvement. This session will cover:
- Introducing the Model for Improvement
- Driver diagrams
- Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles
- Learning from experience
Session 4: Measurement and Variation
How do we know when we have made an improvement? Have we really improved or are we misinterpreting the data? This session will cover:
- The importance of measurement
- Faces of data
- Common cause and special cause variation
- Run charts
Session 5: Sustaining Improvement
Once you’ve made an improvement and your project is finished, keeping the improvement going can be tough. How can we stop everything drifting back to how it was before?
- Good practice to sustain improvements
- Tools you can use to sustain an improvement
- Standardisation
Improvement Teams Programme
This QI programme is for teams who wish to improve an aspect of work through implementation of evidenced based practice and with rigorous application of improvement methods to demonstrate better results.
It is designed with a focus on sites who can deliver results and learn for the wider organisation. With a blend of targeted change ideas and a deeper knowledge of improvement methods, teams will apply a range of tools to their work to understand the system, gather and organise data and information, understand variation and identify change ideas to support implementation of evidence into practice.
As a result of participating in this programme participants will be expected to:
- Apply the Model for Improvement to deliver on improvement projects
- Define a set of measures, collect and analyse time series data
- Conduct frequent iterative testing using PDSA cycles
- Aim to achieve results with evidence of improvement that will be shared with the wider improvement community at Cambridge.
There will be an expectation that teams are supported by their organisation to deliver the improvement project, with coaching and support throughout the programme from IHI faculty to enable progress and provide the greatest chance of success. Please note this programme is available for Newcastle Hospitals staff only.
Improvement Coach Programme
The Improvement Coach programme will help you support staff who are undertaking improvement work either as individuals or as part of a team through implementation of evidenced based practice and application of improvement methods.
The Improvement Coach Programme will prepare coaches for practical work with quality improvement project teams and incorporate the following tools all taught through a coaching lens:
- History of QI
- Developing change & creativity
- Forms of collecting data
- Running effective team meetings – 7 steps
- Implementation and sustainability
- Deming’s Lens of Profound Knowledge
- Selecting and prioritising changes
- Understanding relationships in data
- Facilitation toolbox for coaches – intervening as a coach, managing difficult behaviours
- Psychology of change
- Model for Improvement 3 Questions (aims, changes, data)
- Measurement for improvement and run charts
- PDSA and iterative learning
- Coaching teams theory and practice
Through participating in this programme, Improvement Coaches will be expected to support individuals and teams with:
- Applying the Model for Improvement to deliver on improvement projects
- Advise and continued teaching, advocating improvement methodology as part of the working day
- Continue to spend time on improvement coaching work following the completion of the course, working across boundaries where appropriate
Please note this programme is available for Newcastle Hospitals staff only.
My QI Coaching Journey