Quality improvement projects conducted by interprofessional teams of learners: Implementation and impact

Students in their second year of the Vanderbilt Program of Interprofessional Learning (VPIL) complete team-based quality improvement (QI) projects in their assigned clinic as part of the core curriculum. This report describes the creation and implementation of the student teams' QI curriculum and investigates how clinical preceptors view the project impact. Between 2012-2019, the VPIL teams designed and implemented 69 improvement projects. Improvement projects fell primarily into three categories: improving clinic care delivery (n = 25, 36%), patient education and health coaching (n = 21, 30%), and quality measures such as screening tests/prophylaxis (n = 10, 14%). Clinic preceptors received a survey about the sustainability and effectiveness of the projects. Survey feedback was received from 44/69 (64%) preceptors. Many (70%) projects resulted in perceived improvements, and some projects (34%) had improvements that are still in use. Despite barriers and challenges, interprofessional student teams can successfully learn the basics of QI and work together to design and implement a project. These projects have the potential to make meaningful changes in clinic practices and are helpful to the clinic preceptors.