Quality Improvement in Healthcare: the Case for Change Course - University of Bath

Explore new and better ways of organising health and social care services to improve quality with this free CPD-certified course.

Why is quality improvement in health and social care systems so difficult? Why is it so challenging to bring in new and better ways of organising health and social care services?

Many reasons have been put forward: lack of money; lack of appropriate or complete knowledge; excessive and perhaps unnecessary regulations; and entrenched professional opinions and interests.

This course suggests that the main reason is complexity. Health and social care systems are inherently complex, with many interconnected activities and processes, and thus difficult to measure, analyse, change and improve.

When would you like to start?

Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts.

• Available now

Who is the course for?

The course is designed for people working in health and social care organisations such as clinicians, allied health professionals, nurses, managers or administrators. People with a general interest in health and social care organisations, such as service users and carers, may also find the course of interest to them.

Who will you learn with?

Anna Burhouse

I am Director of Quality Development for Northumbria Healthcare NHS FT. I lead quality improvement development & coach teams across the UK to innovate and spread best practices.

Christos Vasilakis

Professor and Director, Centre for Healthcare Improvement & Innovation (CHI-2) @ProfChristosV @UniofBath @BathSofM. Change by design through systems modelling and simulation in healthcare.

Tricia Woodhead

25yrs as NHS consultant Radiologist, 9 yrs Medical Director & 5 yrs as Regional Medical Lead for Patient Safety. I am a Health Foundation/IHI Quality Improvement Fellow. I coach & teach teams to excel.

Who developed the course?

University of Bath

The University of Bath is one of the UK’s leading universities both in terms of research and our reputation for excellence in teaching, learning and graduate prospects.

What topics will you cover?

• Complexity and quality improvement in health and social care.
• Quality improvement theory: the Model for Improvement, an introduction to LEAN, an introduction to microsystems.
• Evaluating quality improvement: the lens of profound knowledge, measuring for improvement.
• Engagement and co-production.
• Systems modelling and quality improvement: modelling for demand and capacity problems and computer simulation modelling.
• Making the case for quality improvement.

What will you achieve

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to:

• Identify what quality and process improvement entail, especially in a health and social care setting.
• Explain how quality improvement can lead to better outcomes for staff and organisations, including customers and/or patients.
• Gain the confidence to start and lead a quality improvement project within your organisation.
• Identify how to access additional support, and get others to join with you in making improvements.
• Discuss how quality improvement can help you deal with complexity in organisational systems and identify how to improve key areas without worsening others.
• Explore how systems modelling and analytics techniques support quality improvement initiatives.