Introduction
Quality Improvement for Social Work, Nursing & Midwifery
This regional programme was developed in 2015 to support the social work profession
to develop skills and knowledge in quality improvement. A small number of nursing
colleagues first joined the programme in 2018 and this year the programmes scope
widened to accommodate additional numbers of nurses and social workers.
Based on the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) framework, it presents a model
for examining the safety and quality of service delivery for patients and service users.
A range of quality improvement principles and methods underpin the programme,
with a core component being the use of the model for improvement. This simple
yet powerful tool enables staff to test ideas for change on a small scale, to learn
from these tests and build on them. This ensures testing ideas in practice before
implementation, scale up and spread.
The overall aim of this year's programme is to develop
and strengthen social work practitioners and nursing
staff to become leaders by utilising quality improvement
techniques and contributing to the regional development
of quality improvement.
Completion of the programme is dependent on
participants completing eight taught days, completing
online IHI modules and participating in a service
improvement initiative. In addition social workers
undertake seven reflective learning tasks which allows
them to claim three requirements of the leadership and
strategic award in social work.
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