Training Student Nurses in QI

At ELFT a large part of our work around QI focuses on developing improvement skills in our staff, service users & carers so that they can lead QI work.  But what about building skills in groups of people who will soon be joining the organisation? A great example of this is our student nurses at City, University of London.  It makes good sense to invest time training these students, as over 90% of students who qualify from this academic institution will go on to work at ELFT; QI skills will help them contribute to QI work as soon as they start in the organisation, or indeed will equip them for improvement work in other Trusts.

Over the past couple of years the QI Team has been working in partnership with City, University of London to build improvement capability for future nurses. This has primarily involved developing different teaching sessions and workshops as part of student’s formal training, upskilling the existing faculty at City so that they can informally teach about QI and ensuring that students have the opportunity to get involved with QI projects during their clinical placements at ELFT.

To date approximately 180 undergraduate and postgraduate student nurses from City, University London have received QI training. The feedback from the training has been very positive;  many of the students who have graduated and joined the Trust as an employee have gone on to be involved in and/or lead quality improvement projects.

What’s coming next?  We have now just completed our first year of working with student nurses at the University of Bedfordshire, so that we can create a similar situation for our colleagues in Luton and Bedfordshire.  We are also looking to see how we can work with further professional trainee groups to carry on working ‘upstream’.  So watch this space!