New to Quality Improvement

By now you should be well into or even done with your internship. I personally love QI and wish I could just devote myself to it full-time. Unfortunately there is little opportunity in the field- at least in my area.

My only advice is that QI projects must be meaningful to the staff to get them to buy-in. Get a good handle on statistics, and remember the reality that the staff has to work with every day. Improvement is never done, we can always improve. We are limited though, by our human frailties and a thousand variables. It is like a huge puzzle and the QI person gets to look and see where the pieces fit together. I love taking in the big picture and trying to find a way to make things better.

QI is not QA, though many people confuse them. QI is a creative process. QA is ongoing monitoring to make sure things are being done properly. Many jobs that are supposed to be QI are actually QA. Employers often don't actually want you to try and improve things. They want you to be a police officer of paperwork to make sure that no one is screwing up. Don't let them confuse you.

It is not for everyone, but you learned from it and that is the main thing. A lot of people think QI is a cushy job, but as you saw it is very complicated making real change. We are often carried along by our own inertia and getting people to want to change is not easy, but seeing results is a great feeling. I am glad you got the experience and glad that you updated this to let us know. Good luck in the future.