It’s another sunny day and the laptop continues to perform well in the garden!
Yippee! I have completed my Foundations in Improvement Science for Healthcare (FISH©) course. The final stages of the course have taken me through visual presentation of system data, some worked examples (very useful) and of course the final assessment. The key elements of the course came back to me easily for the assessment test which I always think is an indication of both enjoyment and how well the material has been presented.
My mentor says I have done more than enough to progress to the next stage of my improvement science journey. Practitioner level now awaits. It is when it really gets serious and you take the learning so far and start applying it in very practical ways. My goal is to become ‘safe’ in the use of the tools and techniques, which will give me the confidence to help others learn these fantastic skills. All very satisfying indeed.
The other day I was at Keele University doing a session on change management to a group of specialist registrars. We were exploring the key steps to follow if you are going to improve your approach to change management. It struck me at the time that we need to make our approaches to potentially complex scenarios habit forming. In other words lots and lots of research on change management has been conducted, so lets use it rather than stumbling through. Similarly improvement science gives you a set of disciplines and tools to support and deliver changes in the design of our healthcare systems. What we have to do is get to the point where it is a widespread habit to approach our healthcare systems and processes using this knowledge. I am absolutely convinced patients will feel the difference and the ‘ground hog day’ operational struggles can be approached with renewed vigour and produce differing outcomes. i.e. improved quality, motivation and productivity.
So bring on the next stage of my journey as a mentor to other FISH participants, learning to be a practitioner and being able to apply this knowledge habitually.
The sun is still out!