Episode 24: Quality Improvement Projects

Undergraduate medical students at the University of Calgary have an opportunity to participate in quality improvement projects via Med 440, an Applied Evidence Based Medicine course. During this 120-hour course, students explore in depth an area of particular interest and complete 80 hours of elective time under the supervision of a preceptor. Students usually choose two clinical electives of 40 hours each to experience utilizing critical appraisal skills to address questions related to prognosis, investigation and/or treatment; but, for the first time this year students had the chance to work on a single quality improvement project for 80 hours instead. In this episode, three Med 440 students, Chris Sveen, Mandy Ang, and Amanda Schouten, share their research and offer insight on what they learned.

Their projects:

• Chris explored whether the addition of a nurse liaison would improve patient flow through the healthcare system.
• Mandy examined nurse-physician communications to find small areas where clarifications or improvements could make a systematic difference.
• Amanda tested the use of safety learning summaries in emergency departments with the goal of bridging the gap between the administrative process, findings of quality assurance reviews, and front-line staff.

After listening to this podcast, listeners will be able to:
1.  Understand how the Med 440 course provides undergraduate students an opportunity to explore quality improvement projects in ways not available elsewhere in the                curriculum
2.  Learn how three students conduct their research and what findings they report at completion of their projects.

Read More:
To learn more about Med 440, click here.