Development of a Tool to Assess Trainees' Ability to Design and Conduct Quality Improvement Projects

An important competency for residents developing skills in quality improvement (QI) and patient safety (PS) is to independently carry out an improvement project. The authors describe the development and reliability testing of the Quality Improvement Project Evaluation Rubric (QIPER) for use in rating project presentations in the Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Resident in Quality and Safety Program. QIPER contains 19 items across 6 domains to assess competence in designing, implementing, analyzing results of, and reporting on a QI/PS project. Interrater reliability of the instrument was calculated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). QIPER scores ranged from 28 to 72 out of a possible 76. QIPER demonstrated good reliability overall (ICC = 0.63). Although further testing is warranted, QIPER shows promise as a tool to assess a comprehensive set of skills involved in conducting QI/PS projects and has the sensitivity to detect varied competence and utility for providing learner feedback.