Phase 1 – Getting started on your improvement journey
Start here with our introductory guides as you begin on your QI journey. We look at QI methods, planning for your QI projects and making small manageable changes to your service.
Online guide – Getting started
We have designed this page to be as simple to follow as possible, with quick access to resources and guidance to help you start making improvements to your service.
Below you will find a progress chart that you can print out to help you keep track of videos watched. You may also wish to display this on a staff room wall to keep track of your progress as a team.
Aims
- Define your purpose
- Identify the problem
- Examine your data
- Start using QI methods, planning your QI project and making small manageable changes to your service
Tips
- Get in contact with your local QI team and involve them in your work – they can be a valuable source of expertise and support
- Start small – Decide what you would like to change in your service and start putting small and manageable changes into action
Getting started: Introductory videos – work through the short instructional videos below as a team
How teams and improvement methods work together
Tricia explains how high performing teams and improvement methods work together:
Patients and microsystems
An introduction to patients and microsystems, as well as a quick run-through of the PDSA cycle:
PDSA and real life
Using the PDSA cycle in our daily work:
We hope those videos have given you a good introduction!
Now move to the section below to continue your QI journey with our instructional videos
Getting started: Instructional videos
Continue to work through these videos to get started in QI.
-
High performing teams and meetings
Team meetings are the engine of improvement. Are your team meetings as efficient as they could be?
Read more
-
Discovering our data
For this exercise you will need your service's latest NPDA summary
Read more
-
QI tools
Get started with process mapping and fishbone diagrams
Read more
-
Human factors and reliability
We work in complex systems. Here we look at the reliability of each step of our work
Read more
-
Improving complex systems
Here are three videos aimed at getting us to start thinking about complexity
Read more
-
Three ways to organise solutions
Exploring your work and finding ways to improve
Read more
Additional videos
If you would like to explore more, watch the videos below to view QI concepts in more detail:
High performing teams and using QI tools
This is a recording of the high performing teams presentation from Session 1 of the National Diabetes QI Collaborative: