The State of Quality Improvement Teaching in Medical Schools: A Systematic Review

While teaching patient safety and quality improvement (QI) skills to medical students is endorsed as being important, best practice for achieving learner outcomes in QI is particularly unclear. We systematically reviewed QI curricula for medical students to identify approaches to QI training that are associated with positive learner outcomes.

We searched databases (Medline, EMBASE, and Scopus) and article bibliographies for studies published from 2009 to 2018. Studies evaluating QI teaching for medical students in any setting and reporting learner outcomes were included. Educational content, teaching format, achievement of learning outcomes, and methodological features were abstracted. Outcomes assessed were learners' satisfaction, attitudes, knowledge and skills, changes in behavior and clinical processes, and benefits to patients.

Twenty of 25 curricula targeted medical students exclusively. Most curricula were well accepted by students (11/13 studies), increased their confidence in QI (9/11) and led to knowledge acquisition (17/20). Overall, positive learner outcomes (Kirkpatrick Levels 1 to 4A) were demonstrated across a range of curricular content and teaching modalities. In particular, 2 curricula demonstrated positive changes in learners' behavior (Kirkpatrick Level 3), both incorporating a clinical audit or QI project based in hospitals, and supplemented by didactic lectures. Seven curricula were associated with improvements in processes of care (Kirkpatrick Level 4A) all of which were set in a clinical setting and supplemented by didactic lectures and/or small group sessions. None of the curricula evaluated patient benefits (Kirkpatrick Level 4B).

Whilst there is heterogeneity in educational content and teaching methods, most curricula are well accepted and led to learners' knowledge acquisition. Although there is limited evidence for the impact of QI curricula on learner behavior and benefit to patients, and for interprofessional QI curricula, teaching QI in the clinical setting leads to better learner outcomes with location being potentially a surrogate for clinical experience.