Quality improvement training for healthcare professionals

There is an increasing focus on improving healthcare in order to ensure higher quality. Training programmes have been developed to teach health professionals and students formal quality improvement methods.

This evidence scan explores the following questions:

• What types of training about formal quality improvement techniques are available for health professionals?

• What evidence is there about the most effective methods for training clinicians in quality improvement?

The scan looks at the content of training and the impact it is shown to have, as well as the effectiveness of different methods.

This is an essential area for further exploration and the scan shows that a great deal remains uncertain about training in quality improvement. This includes: the most appropriate content; how training can best be delivered to improve processes and patient outcomes; how to measure and ensure quality within training.