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New IHI Survey Finds Quality & Safety Training for Health Professions Turning the Corner, Yet Still Work to Be DoneCAMBRIDGE, Mass. & ORLANDO, Fla. --(Business Wire)-- Growing interest in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) Open School - whose registrants reached 150,000 in more than 50 countries in 2012 - is echoed in the results of a new survey that finds students in the health professions are increasingly seeking out training in quality improvement and patient safety. In the face of a troubled health care landscape, the survey results underscore a deep dedication among the next generation of health professionals to build the knowledge and skills they will need to create a better health and health care future. In a new survey from IHI, more than 60 percent of students admitted they had witnessed or made an error in patient care, with only half saying they were extremely likely to speak up about an error made by a colleague or a superior. To help address gaps like this, IHI's Open School features a course on "The Power of Speaking Up" (available at http://tinyurl.com/b99tvgk) (Photo: Business Wire) Commissioned by IHI and conducted by national research firm Kelton, the survey polled more than 350 medical, nursing, pharmacy and other health care professional students. Nearly 90 percent of students responding to the survey believe it is extremely important for health professions schools to provide training or skills in patient safety, with the majority of students also identifying training in patient-centered care, quality improvement and interprofessional teamwork and communications as extremely important. The good news is that students are beginning to get what they are looking for - with the vast majority rating their training in these areas as good or excellent. "This is a marked and welcome change from where we were four years ago when we created a curriculum of online courses on the fundamentals of quality improvement and safety and made it free for all students, residents, and faculty in the health professions," said Maureen Bisognano, IHI President and CEO. "Today, not only are students embracing these principles, but health care educators are creatively integrating this instruction into their training. Yet, we still have a long way to go. More than 100,000 people die each year from preventable errors and our health care system remains plagued with high costs, waste, and inefficiencies - we can and must do more to address these urgent issues." Top Student Concern: Making Harmful or Fatal Errors Students recognize the gaps that persist and must be addressed. In the new survey, 43 percent ranked making a harmful or fatal error in patient care as their top concern when they start working, with more than60 percent admitting they had witnessed or made an error in patient care. And these fears and mistakes are often kept silent, with only half the students surveyed saying they were extremely likely to speak up about an error made by a colleague or a superior. They pointed to fear of being ostracized (31 percent), fear of being treated poorly (27 percent), or not being entirely sure what qualifies as an error (24 percent) as key reasons for their silence. Addressing gaps like these, continuing to develop relevant course work, and reaching more students worldwide are top goals for the IHI Open School. "The onus of fixing health care is on our generation, and we want to build a system based not only on first-class medical knowledge, but also on first-class health care delivery," said Alexi Nazem, MD, MBA, a former IHI Open School Chapter Leader at Yale School of Medicine, and now a resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "The Open School provides us with the 'missing curriculum' we need to be smart, and the like-minded colleagues we need to be strong in order to tackle the challenges ahead." Recognizing this need, a number of professional schools worldwide are integrating the IHI Open School curriculum as a requirement for students, including Baylor College of Medicine, Clemson University, Cardiff (UK) University, Texas A&M, University at Buffalo School of Nursing, University of South Dakota, University of Colorado, University of Minnesota and Eastern Virginia Medical School. Students at many of these schools are learning interprofessionally, with the idea that working together in training will improve communication, systems and patient care when it comes time to practice. A recent Health Affairs article highlighted the IHI Open School's role in a project that integrated quality and safety into medical and nursing school curricula. Funded by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the Retooling for Quality and Safety Initiative made strong progress toward fostering joint learning in health professions schools.
About the Survey
About IHI Open School
About The Institute for Healthcare Improvement
IHI Open School video (available here)
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