The Applied Safety and Quality Program

The program aims to develop capability in the NSW Health workforce to influence and lead the safety and quality of their local healthcare service. The program also aims for these skills and attitudes to become "everyday habits" in individuals and teams, enhancing cultures that support continuous improvement and learning for safety.

The program is delivered across 12-months and includes the following four modules:

• Module 1: Patient Safety Applied
• Module 2: Improvement Science Applied
• Module 3: Safety and Quality Applied at the Point of Care
• Module 4: Safety and Quality Applied in Systems.

This program supports the practical application of improvement and patient safety sciences and facilitation skills in local workplaces.

Across the program, you will be supported to facilitate a local work-based safety improvement project/ safety focus.

Key program concepts include:

• Application of the Tenets of Safety and Quality
  • Facilitation Skills
  • Systems Thinking
  • Human Factors
  • Consumer and family engagement
  • Data and evidence
  • Continuous Learning
  • Multidisciplinary teamwork
  • Every person leadership.
• Patient safety legislation, processes and tools.
• Quality improvement methods, tools and processes.
• High reliability care and teams.
• Facilitation skills applied for safety and quality including change and transitions.
• Stakeholder engagement e.g. sponsors, consumers, clinicians and non-clinical staff.
• A range of data and tools to measure local safety and quality.
• Leadership and influence for healthcare safety and quality.
• Mindfulness and wellbeing.

NSW Health staff seeking to develop the skills, knowledge and mindsets to apply quality improvement and patient safety in everyday practice.

This may include those who currently support, lead or aspire to lead local safety and quality improvement efforts.

The 12-month Applied Safety and Quality Program is delivered by local safety and quality faculty within your organisation.

Check your local intranet site or contact your Clinical Governance Unit.

Prerequisites

• Professional experience in any healthcare setting.
• Completion of the following prerequisites:
  • 6 Dimensions of Healthcare Quality video (Foundational level)
  • Readiness to Lead for Safety and Improvement (Intermediate level)
  • Introduction to Improvement Science (Intermediate level).
• Signed local supervisor approval to undertake an appropriate improvement project or safety focus across the program, ideally relating to an identified local risk or improvement opportunity.
• Ability to commit to program attendance requirements.

1. Apply the Tenets of Safety and Quality as everyday behaviours for safety and quality improvement.
2. Apply the NSW Health Facilitation Standards to a range of safety and quality improvement team contexts.
3. Apply appropriate improvement, research and applied science methodologies to achieve more sustainable change for healthcare improvement.
4. Demonstrate capability to support service users, families, carers and staff to feel psychologically safe to engage in learning and to acknowledge risk and incidents.
5. Apply knowledge regarding how organisational, team and individual conditions influence a service's ability to achieve reliably safe, high-quality care.
6. Identify, communicate and contribute to the management of clinical incidents and risk.
7. Demonstrate awareness of how thoughts, emotions, physical feelings and wellbeing influence effective performance at work and adapt, when necessary, to deliver and influence safe, reliable healthcare.
8. Describe individual parts of the healthcare organisation and apply this information to contribute to change for safety and quality.
9. Apply mindfulness and wellbeing to individual and team contexts for safety and quality.

Program modules

Each module includes:

• Preparation for labs: reflections, readings, activities.
• 2-day labs: Experiential workshops.
• Guided application of learning in the workplace between labs.
• A selection of activities which will be included in a final portfolio of evidence for submission.
• Active learning groups between labs will support facilitation skill development and practice and support participants in their leadership of their improvement project.
• Coaching of your application of learning in the workplace.

CPD hours

Participation will qualify for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours.

Certificates of completion

E-certificates will be issued via My Health Learning on program completion.

Ongoing development opportunities in safety and quality improvement:

• Short program electives in a range of topics and delivery modes will support ongoing development of safety and quality concepts, methods and tools.
• Articulation to post graduate university programs. Contact your local program coordinator for details
• Join your local safety and quality Alumni and potential to join local program faculty.