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Quality Improvement (QI) Teaching & the UCL Curriculum

This case study unpacks a staff-run project aimed at exploring how Quality Improvement (QI) teaching could be interwoven into the curriculum of UCL’s Medical School and School of Pharmacy.

25 July 2021

Case study by Manuela Sadik

What was the aim of your project?

Be The Change was a unique project that involved stimulating the practice of Quality Improvement (QI) in students from both UCL’s Medical School and School of Pharmacy

What did you do?

We undertook a parallel approach of discussing the best way to implement QI teaching within the current curriculum with key members of faculty; and actively engaging a focus group of students into a guided QI project to discover which aspects would be best taught in the classroom. 

What were the main successes of the project?

Our project was a success overall. Our student focus group is extremely motivated and currently finishing the third PDSA cycle of their project. They have been looking into implementing ‘Green Bags’ in hospital wards as a method of reducing the pharmaceutical waste of overprescribed medications. Their results have been very promising and may lead to a publication.

What difficulties did you face during your project? What would you do differently?

Initially, we had ambitions to include multiple aspects of QI teaching and a formal assessment featuring a project in our project. However we soon discovered that integration requires time and iteration to be done correctly. A lack of sufficient time meant that we were unable to achieve all that we had planned. 

What impact has your project had? On whom?

Several students from our focus group hope to take a more active role in the leadership of the initiative and continuing formal integration into the curriculum. We look forward to seeing how our integrated lectures and extracurricular QI initiative evolve next year and the following steps to adding QI to the curriculum.

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