Engaging frontline staff in quality improvement science to improve the patient experience

Quality Improvement Poster Download

Background & Problem

It is recognised that staff engagement directly affects patient outcomes and experience. By empowering staff to engage with patient experience data and make change happen can help staff to reconnect with their fundamental values (US-PEx: 2016).

The National Inpatient Survey results are not improving for this Trust in fact there is a decline in where we are positioned when compared to other Picker Trusts. The Staff Survey tells us that we do not use patient feedback effectively and that they are not satisfied with the quality of work and care they are able to deliver. We have learned that the traditional approach of a Trustwide action plan going from the top down is not yielding the improvements needed as reported by patients. The focus of this work was in adult inpatient areas.

Aim

To improve staff engagement in patient experience quality improvement initiatives by 50% by 30th November 2017.

Method

To encourage a range of patient experience focussed quality improvement initiatives based on feedback from patients and other metrics within individual areas. A patient experience focussed Silver programme with the GSQIA enabled frontline staff to develop an increase in knowledge around quality improvement methodology.

Results

The expectation was for frontline staff to embark on a quality improvement project utilising the US-PEx resource book. It became clear that in order to truly empower staff they needed to be able to choose their improvement project based on their knowledge of their area. The number of projects with a focus on patient experience has more than doubled since the initial drive for engagement.

Implications

The concept of engaged and empowered staff having a positive impact on patient outcomes and experience has a clear evidence base. The next stages will be to continue to coach and support staff to engage with quality improvement science to enable our Trust to achieve its strategic objectives and an improvement in the national inpatient survey results.