Senior leaders from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Qatar University’s College of Medicine attended an award ceremony for 55 final year medical students who successfully completed a specialised training course on Quality Improvement and patient safety as part of their expanded clinical education. The aim is to instill the necessary skills deep within the students as they develop into future doctors who will better equipped to take a role in improving the quality and safety of the care they will provide to their patients leading to better outcomes of care.
The ‘Basics in Quality improvement, Patient safety (QPS) and Person-centered care (PCC) for Medical Students course’ was specifically geared toward training graduating medical students at the QU’s College of Medicine and developed together with HMC’ Department of Medical Education and Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute. The course curriculum aims at enhancing medical students’ knowledge, improve their understanding, skills and behavior towards delivering not only good clinical care but care that can be continuously improved, is more safe and compassionate. The program was developed during the “Preparation for Practice” clerkship where the final year medical students rotate in their selected future career specialties. The 55 graduating students rotated across 20 specialties at HMC, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Sidra Hospital. The students were assigned to 15 different small teams with each team working on an improvement project using the IHI model for improvement. All 15 teams presented the outcomes of their projects at the award ceremony.
Dr. Abdullatif Al-Khal, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Department of Medical Education said that all medical students should have quality improvement science and best practice included in their training. “Studies have shown that integrating teaching of quality improvement, patient safety skills and person-centered care knowledge in medical students’ curriculum is a far more effective approach to promoting awareness, understanding and adoption of these core principles of better patient care. This knowledge and skills in quality improvement will enable them to become important influencers of change as future doctors.”
“I am therefore delighted that we have had the expertise of the Hamad Healthcare Quality Team and the support from the College of Medicine who have worked closely together to enhance the curriculum that now includes this training that will benefit both patients and the physicians to care for them,” added Dr. Al-Khal.
The education program included Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) Model for Improvement and students received additional skills in how to use a Clinical Microsystem Assessment tool to help diagnose, measure, analyze, change, and lead improvements in healthcare. The students also attended compassionate human interaction workshops arranged by the Center for Patient Experience and Staff Engagement (CPESE) team. Students submitted self-reflection feedback on their reaction, behavior and learning before and after the course. The objective is to promote the delivery of care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and ensuring that patient values guide associated clinical decisions.
Nasser Al Nuaimi, Deputy Chief of Quality, Director of the Center for Patient Experience and Staff Engagement and of Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute explained that the goal of this program is to develop well-educated and more patient-centered physicians: “These 55 graduating students represent the first batch of future doctors who will have received basic knowledge and skills education in quality improvement, patient safety and person-centered care along with practical training on how to apply the learned knowledge and skills in selected specialties. Not only will they be better able to identify a problem, such as a potential systems issue that could adversely impact patients, but they are trained in find solutions and test them to ensure these are robust, reliable and sustainable.”
“I congratulate these students who have demonstrated a real willingness to learn about best practice-based methodologies and concepts that will make them better doctors and better members of whatever healthcare organization they will work in later in life,” added Dr. Al Nuaimi. “This program will be conducted every year for the final year medical students at Qatar University’s College of Medicine and is the one of several millstones in the collaboration between HMC and Academic Institutions. The intention is to expand the students who will receive this training in the future to include nursing, pharmacy, and health sciences. Another visionary QI related effort is also to extend the building of capacity and capability to Qatar’s private healthcare sector. These efforts are being developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), healthcare quality management and patient safety and insurance departments.”
The Dean of CMED-QU, Dr. Marwan Abu-Hijleh, expressed his appreciation for the team efforts resulting in such a great academic achievement. He also said that this will lead to more trust from patients to receive care from these graduating students as they grow into the physicians of the future. The graduation ceremony took place on Sunday 23rd October in the Itqan Clinical Simulation and Innovation Center and was attended by academic and clinical leaders from QU and HMC.
