Developing and piloting a peer quality improvement coaching protocol for front-line healthcare staff

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Medical Education and Training
• Organizational Behavior in Healthcare

Background:

• Improving patient care quality is a global priority, yet evidence shows poor adoption of improvement principles by front-line healthcare workers.
• While education alone is insufficient, coaching is crucial for sustainable, evidence-based improvement implementation.
• Peer quality improvement coaching (PQIC) leverages the coach-coachee relationship to enhance quality improvement (QI) outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and pilot an evidence-based protocol for implementing and evaluating PQIC.
• The protocol aims to support front-line staff in small to intermediate improvement efforts.
• To assess the effectiveness of PQIC using established evaluation tools.

Main Methods:

• A multistage case-study design was employed.
• A systematized literature review identified key themes in QI coaching (QIC).
• The PQIC protocol was developed based on literature themes, Bloom's taxonomy, and Kirkpatrick's model, then piloted in a tertiary maternity hospital.

Main Results:

• The literature review yielded themes on QIC effectiveness, strategies, and evaluation methods.
• The piloted PQIC protocol involved education, coaching, and evaluation phases.
• Participants showed excellent scores in the education phase, and coached staff demonstrated increased QI knowledge and skills.

Conclusions:

• The developed PQIC protocol is evidence-based and supports front-line healthcare workers in improvement efforts.
• This protocol contributes to international evidence on supporting healthcare staff in QI.
• Further research is needed to evaluate the protocol's effectiveness in diverse settings.