New to Quality Improvement

[Eliza79]

Hello-I am starting a position in Quality Improvement. I am very excited and nervous and wanted to know what to expect. I would love to hear from others who made the switch from bedside nursing to QI/PI.

[RLDickman]

Hello, Eliza79 --

I made the switch from bedside nurse to QI/PI and have loved it. Some of the challenges I faced were getting used to a Monday through Friday schedule, figuring out what to wear, and getting up to speed with the multitude of quality/performance standards that I was now responsible to track, teach, and improve. I also had to learn a lot about QI/PI tools and principles.

The roles and responsibilities of QI/PI professionals vary from institution to institution, so I am not sure what would be most helpful to support you in your new role, but the following organizations had resources (websites, publications, guides/tools, or education offerings) that were helpful to me: the quality/safety division of my state hospital association, my local QIN (Quality Improvement Network), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Quality Net, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), and the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF).

Before you lead a quality/performance improvement project, be sure to become familiar with basic QI/PI tools and you will save yourself a lot of re-work. At a minimum, these would include: root cause analysis, action planning, and PSDA cycles (plan-do-study-act) in small tests of change. You will also find it helpful to hone your communication skills (teaching/presentation, active listening, critical conversations) and become familiar with the concept of Just Culture. Learn how to understand and manage data. Also, many hospitals are utilizing house-wide QI/PI models (i.e. Lean Six Sigma), so be sure to learn your hospital's approach and become familiar with its principles.

QI/PI work is very rewarding. While you may no longer get the rewards that come from direct patient/family contact, it can be very fulfilling to lead improvement projects that bring positive change to your organization or improve care for patients throughout your organization.

All the best!

[Libby1987]

Is your title meant to be ironic?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Moved to our Quality Improvement forum.

[sunset0500]

I am working as Staff nurse but also I just join my Department "PICU" QI team. I love it so much and I could see the beauty of change toward the bright outcomes in patient care. Really, it is a wonderful job.