Quality improvement for nurses and midwives
Quality improvement (QI) is about meeting and exceeding people’s needs and expectations and then continuing to improve.
Quality care is care that:
- is person-centred - respectful and responsive to a person’s needs
- is effective - delivered according to best evidence about what is effective in improving a persons’ health outcomes
- is safe - avoids, prevents and minimises harm to people and learns from when things go wrong
- leads to better health and wellbeing - seeks to identify and take opportunities to support people in improving their own health and well-being
ONMSD's work on quality improvement
The Office of the Nursing and Midwifery Services Director (ONMSD) supports QI by providing individual staff resources to the National QI Team (NQI Team) leading on specific QI projects as well as collective contribution to QI education, practice, project development, research and resources.
The NQI team provide many programmes and tools helpful to nurses and midwives.
Role of the National Lead Quality Improvement
There is a national lead for quality improvement (QI) within the ONMSD, supported to work with the HSE National Quality Improvement Team. This person leads on specific projects as well as the collective contribution of nurses and midwives to QI education, practice, project development, research and resources.
The purpose of the role is to:
- maintain strong communication and collaboration between the ONMSD team and the National Quality Improvement Team
- promote QI information and expertise to the ONMSD
The Lead supports the leadership team in championing, enabling and demonstrating QI. QI is informed by the Framework for Improving Quality in our Health Services (2016), the Improvement Knowledge and Skills Guide (2017) and the National QI Team Strategic Plan 2019-2021.
The Lead is involved in the following activities:
providing training in partnership with staff of the School of QI to front-line teams in QI methods and applications
Collaborating with and supporting the national quality improvement priority programmes in:
- falls and bone health
- pressure ulcers
- medication safety
- deteriorating patient
- QI for Boards
- promoting QI resources and information to the attention of ONMSD
- disseminating new QI resources and information to nurses and midwives across the health system
- linking the ONMSD digital platforms with National Quality Improvement Team web resources
- providing ongoing advice and support on QI methods
Contact
Dr. Maureen Flynn – National Lead Quality Improvement
Phone: 01 635 2344
Mobile: 087 931 7014
Framework for improving quality in our health service
The framework essentials for improving care are:
- Leadership for quality
- Clinical leadership competency ePortfolio (HSELanD)
- Person and family engagement.
- Staff engagement
- Use of improvement methods
- Measurement for quality
- Governance for quality
Related topic
QI tool-kits
Health services change guide
The health services change guide is a hands-on guide to assist staff including nurses and midwives to make changes.
Quality improvement zone
The quality improvement zone (provided by NHS Education Scotland) describes the steps of a quality improvement journey. It also provides all the QI tools and templates needed available to download.
QI essential toolkit
The QI essential toolkit includes practical QI templates with worked examples (provided by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (USA).
Learn and develop QI Skills
Improvement knowledge and skills guide
The HSE's improvement knowledge and skills guide provides information which can help to prepare and guide staff on how to deliver improvement in the health service.
Improvement knowledge and skills guide
QI TalkTime
Presents a regular one-hour webinar focusing on QI. Webinars run every two weeks. The talks are free and open to everyone.
Nursing and midwifery hub
This HSELanD hub supports nurses and midwives with professional development and helps to deliver excellence in healthcare.