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Improving the Safety and Quality of Care for Children and Young People With Intellectual and Developmental
Natalie Ong1,2, Sarah Ghasem Zadeh3, Jerzy Zieba1,4
1Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia.
Insights
The Motivated for Change program significantly improved healthcare staff knowledge and skills in providing reasonable adjustments for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This led to enhanced quality of care and motivated staff for continuous improvement in emergency departments.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Quality Improvement
- Pediatric Healthcare
- Disability Studies
Background:
- Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities face healthcare inequities, particularly in emergency departments.
- Emergency departments present challenges due to overstimulation and staff lacking training in reasonably adjusted care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate a continuing education and quality improvement program aimed at enhancing healthcare staff's ability to provide reasonable adjustments.
- The program focused on increasing knowledge, skills, and confidence in caring for children with intellectual disability in hospitals.
Main Methods:
- The study evaluated the 'Motivated for Change' program using behavioral change, adult learning, and quality improvement strategies.
- A pre- and post-intervention survey assessed 131 and 89 staff members, respectively.
- Qualitative data were gathered through parent and staff interviews and observational studies.
Main Results:
- The program led to significant increases in staff knowledge, skills, and confidence in providing safe and quality care.
- Interview and observational themes confirmed practice changes and improved care delivery.
- Staff were motivated to initiate quality improvement projects and develop in-house training.
Conclusions:
- The 'Motivated for Change' program effectively improved the practice of reasonable adjustments for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- The program fostered local champions for sustained improvements in healthcare safety and quality.
Background:
Children and young people with intellectual and developmental disability have long been known to suffer from inequities in accessing safe and quality health care. These challenges are most felt within the emergency department due to its busy, crowded, and overstimulating environments with staff that are not trained to provide reasonably adjusted care.
Aims:
The study is an evaluation using qualitative and quantitative methods of a continuing education and quality improvement programme designed to increase the knowledge, skills, and confidence of healthcare staff in providing reasonable adjustments to children and young people with intellectual disability in hospitals.
Methods:
This study evaluated the Motivated for Change programme, which uses Behavioural change, Adult Learning, and Quality Improvement strategies to drive practice change and service improvement. A hundred and thirty-one and 89 staff participated in a pre- and post-intervention survey. Interviews were conducted with parents of children and young people with intellectual and developmental disability attending the emergency department. Observational studies were also conducted in the pre- and post-intervention phase. These were transcribed, categorised, and coded with themes derived. Consensus was reached through meetings with the research team.
Results:
The Motivated for Change programme has demonstrated significant increases in staff knowledge, skills, and experience in providing safe and quality care for these children and young people. Evidence of change is reflected in the parent and staff interview and observational study themes. In addition, staff were further motivated to undertake quality improvement projects, develop an in-house training programme to provide ongoing training for new staff, and make further improvements in the department.
Conclusions:
The Motivated for Change programme has demonstrated its efficacy in enabling changes in the practice of reasonable adjustments and the emergence of local champions for sustained efforts for ongoing improvements in safety and quality of care.
Patient And Public Involvement:
The development of the research question and outcome measures was informed by data from previous research publications involving parents and staff. We sought input from a parent advisory committee in the design of the study. Parents were not involved in the recruitment and conduct of the study. Results were presented to the parent advisory at the end of the study.