Changing conversations: teaching safety and quality in residency training

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Patient Safety
• Quality Improvement (QI)

Background:

• Improving healthcare quality and patient safety is a critical challenge.
• Residency training offers a unique opportunity to train physicians in patient safety and QI methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an innovative, longitudinal, experiential curriculum in patient safety and QI for internal medicine residents.
• To equip residents with essential patient safety and QI skills.

Main Methods:

• A two-year curriculum was implemented, teaching systems thinking, human factors analysis, root cause analysis (RCA), and process mapping.
• Residents applied these skills through QI and patient safety projects.
• A constructivist educational model was used to actively engage residents.

Main Results:

• 38 residents completed RCAs of adverse events, identifying causes and proposing interventions that led to care improvements.
• Qualitative analysis showed a shift towards a systems-based approach in residents' thinking about patient safety.
• Outcome assessments indicated seminars met learning objectives and residents gained important skills.

Conclusions:

• Graduate medical education can equip physicians with the necessary skills to lead improvements in healthcare quality and safety.
• The developed curriculum effectively enhanced residents' capabilities in patient safety and QI.