Quality Improvement and Interprofessional Collaboration
Related to the following ASHP Leadership Agenda items
Improve medication-use in hospitals and health systems
Cultivate the leadership skills of health-system pharmacists
Background
Quality improvement is the ongoing process to ensure that patients receive the highest quality care. One way that pharmacists and pharmacy students significantly improve the quality of patient care is by working collaboratively with other health care professionals (e.g. physicians, public health professionals, nurses). Without this collaboration, health care delivery is fragmented and poorly coordinated. The training and expertise of pharmacists is critical to the multidisciplinary patient care team to optimize patient care; as students, it is imperative to appreciate this active role health-system pharmacists play in collaborating with other health care professionals to improve the quality of care. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) Open School for Health Professions is an interprofessional educational community, on- and offline, whose goal is to advance quality improvement and patient safety competencies within the future generations of healthcare professionals worldwide.
Objectives
- To demonstrate the vital role of health-system pharmacists and pharmacy students in quality improvement and patient safety
- To increase pharmacy students’ awareness of the IHI Open School for Health Professions
- To expand quality improvement and patient safety knowledge to pharmacy students and other future healthcare professionals
- To facilitate innovative discussions on healthcare topics concerning quality improvement, patient safety, and patient-centered care
- To become skilled in quality improvement, patient safety, teamwork, leadership, and patient-centered care
- To provide a network for pharmacy students to collaborate with other future healthcare professionals regarding important healthcare issues
SSHP Project Ideas
- Host a series of meetings for pharmacy students and other health care professional students to discuss the importance of interdisciplinary care to patient safety and quality improvement. Use resources such as case presentations and videos (IHI Open School Resource Page)
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- Develop and implement an interprofessional quality improvement project (possible collaboration with an established IHI chapter on your campus) ensuring active pharmacy student involvement and leadership.
- Incorporate new activities or courses pertaining to quality improvement into the curriculum offered at your school of pharmacy.
- Partner with a local hospital or health-system to facilitate student involvement with quality improvement projects.
Resources