Designing for Sustainment: Keeping Improvement Work on Track (Patient Safety IV)

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/patient-safety-sustainment

Introduction

**Course Review: Designing for Sustainment: Keeping Improvement Work on Track (Patient Safety IV)** The field of healthcare is in a constant state of evolution, with a relentless push towards enhancing patient safety and quality improvement. The course titled "Designing for Sustainment: Keeping Improvement Work on Track (Patient Safety IV)" on Coursera emerges as an essential resource for healthcare professionals aspiring to make impactful changes in their organizations. This course not only equips learners with theoretical knowledge but also provides practical tools to ensure that patient safety and quality projects remain robust, timely, and financially viable. ### Course Overview This course seeks to address a critical aspect of healthcare improvement initiatives: maintaining the momentum of projects beyond their initial implementation phases. The importance of sustaining quality improvement efforts is underscored throughout the curriculum, making the content profoundly relevant to anyone involved in healthcare management or patient safety. As part of the learning journey, participants will explore various tangible tools designed to define success, engage stakeholders, conduct risk assessments through pre-mortem analysis, and formulate effective change management strategies. The course proactively prepares learners to anticipate and address potential risks, ensuring that the initiatives they spearhead do not falter over time. ### Syllabus Breakdown **1. What Does Success Look Like?** This module lays the groundwork for understanding project sustainment. Learners are introduced to key concepts such as defining success, identifying risks, and the significance of planning for sustainability from the onset. Real-world case studies add depth to theoretical insights, demonstrating how successful quality improvement initiatives have been executed in practice. **2. Conducting a Premortem** The focus here shifts to a preemptive approach to project management. The pre-mortem exercise allows teams to strategize around potential failures, fostering an environment of proactive problem-solving. This module emphasizes facilitation best practices, ensuring that learners are not only knowledgeable but also capable of guiding discussions that lead to concrete action plans. **3. Change Management 101** In this critical module, participants delve into the dynamics of change management. By dissecting reasons behind change initiative failures, students gain a nuanced understanding of the need for adaptable leadership and effective stakeholder engagement. This knowledge is vital for fostering a culture receptive to change, which is key to any sustainability effort. **4. Planning for Engagement Using the 4 E's + 2 Model** The final module encapsulates the importance of stakeholder engagement in sustaining change. By analyzing barriers to engagement and learning about the frameworks that support continuous integration of changes, learners will leave this module poised to lead successful quality improvement initiatives in their respective organizations. ### Why You Should Enroll If you are a healthcare professional, manager, or anyone involved in quality improvement initiatives, this course is a must. It combines theory with practical applications, preparing participants to tackle the complex challenges of sustaining improvement efforts within their organizations. Moreover, the course is conveniently accessible on Coursera, allowing for flexibility in learning pace and style, making it suitable for busy professionals. The knowledge gained from this course can directly translate into real-world benefits, promoting a culture of patient safety and continuous improvement. ### Final Recommendation In conclusion, I highly recommend "Designing for Sustainment: Keeping Improvement Work on Track (Patient Safety IV)" for those looking to deepen their understanding of patient safety initiatives and how to effect lasting changes in healthcare settings. The course is designed not only to provide foundational knowledge but also to foster skills essential for leading effective change management and improvement projects. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your professional skill set and contribute meaningfully to patient safety and quality improvement in your organization. Enroll today on Coursera and embark on your journey towards making sustainable improvements in healthcare!

Syllabus

What Does Success Look Like?

In this module, learners will develop an understanding of what project sustainment is and why it is important, the potential risks to project sustainment, the importance of planning for sustainment from project inception, types of measures used in quality improvement projects and the attributes of each, how strategies for improvement were developed in two successful large-scale quality improvement initiatives. Learners will become familiar with the issues impacting sustainment and how they may be successfully addressed across the life span of a quality improvement project.

In this module, learners will develop an understanding of what the Pre-Mortem exercise is and how it can be used to: improve project planning, surface threats to project success and sustainment, develop interventions to mitigate risk of project failure, create an action plan to maximize the application of Pre-Mortem results, and maintain awareness of threats to project success across the project lifespan. Learners will also develop familiarity with facilitation best-practices. The Pre-Mortem Exercise can be a powerful tool to identify and mitigate risks for project failure.

In this module, learners will develop an understanding of: what is meant by change management, reasons for change initiative failure, change as a process, frameworks and processes for change, the differences between technical and adaptive work and the role of each in a change effort, leadership skills necessary for addressing adaptive change, identifying and engaging change effort stakeholders, managing conflict, developing a communication strategy for a change effort, applying a systems approach to change efforts.

In this module, learners will develop an understanding of: the role of engagement in sustainability and spread, addressing barriers to engagement, potential areas of failure in sustaining change effort gains, the 2 E's of embedding and enduring and their role in sustainment, frameworks for sustaining change efforts, a real-world example of successful sustainment of a quality improvement initiative.