Posted on: 13 July 2020
Quality Improvement (QI) Is Still Happening and So Is Patient and Carer Involvement in QI!
Last week was National Coproduction Week 2020, and at CNWL we are committed to increasing coproduction across the Trust. One area we’d like to increase coproduction in is Quality Improvement. CNWL has committed to increase meaningful patient and carer involvement in QI projects to 80% by the end of 2020 and following the key principles of coproduction can help us reach this target.
One of the key principles of coproduction is recognising people as assets – this means appreciating that what patients, service users and carers can offer is of equal importance as staff, and that their contributions are valuable. Dr Con Kelly, CNWL Medical Officer has highlighted this: “Service users know more about what works perhaps more than we do. Let’s take the opportunity during this week’s National Coproduction Week to examine our journey so far, invite others on board and see how we can go even further.”
Coproduction in Quality Improvement means involving patients and carers from the start and throughout – this includes choosing the focus of the project, being part of the project team, formulating the change ideas, being included in Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSAs) (tests of change) and in the reporting of the findings. This is Big I involvement, and consists of a full and continuous partnership.
As part of the initiative to increase meaningful patient and carer involvement in QI projects, a project has been formed to provide support with this. The team are here to offer support, advice and guidance for staff, patients and carers wishing to increase their involvement and coproduction in QI. So far, the team have coproduced some resources to help teams on their QI journey:
• Toolkit for Staff in Involving Patients and Carers
• Guidance on How to Pay Patients and Carers for their Involvement
• Posters for teams to put up in their local services to recruit patients and carers and promote QI
• Training for staff on the importance of involving patients and carers in QI
• Training for patients and carers on the basics of QI, delivered jointly by a service user and carer rep.
Our team also have a pool of trained patients and carers keen to get involved, and we can help match the right people to relevant projects. We can also help train anyone you find locally who is interested.
If your QI project would benefit from a call from one of our team to help with your patient and carer involvement, we can arrange this via Zoom, just get in touch.
For further details or support on involving patients and carers in your QI project, please contact us at involvement.cnwl@nhs.net or by calling 020 3317 3735.
[IMAGE: Sandra Jayacodi and Janet Seale, service user and carer QI representatives, working on the driver diagram for their project]