Evolution of a Resident Quality Improvement Curriculum: Lessons Learned on the Path from Innovation Through Stability to Contraction

摘要

The QI curriculum described here allows trainees to be avaluable member of QI efforts in the hospital setting. Byintegrating QI into routine patient care, we offer experientiallearning to resident physicians required by training programs,while working within the competing educational demands ofa residency program and the time constraints of the hospitalsetting. The lessons learned in this curriculum apply to residencyprograms striving to meet the educational needs ofresidents as detailed in the CLER program. As resourcesdiminished, the impact of the curriculum as expressed bythe number of projects decreased. Teaching QI to residentsis itself an act of deliberate, iterative, and continuousimprovement. Furthermore, sustainability, a core principleof QI, applies as much to resources as to the projects themselves.The history of this curriculumoffers an instructive tale of a bright but difficult to sustain curriculum in the face oflimited resources. With this reflection we might now beginagain the process of rebuilding the curriculum and itsresources.