Hello fellow Saba students! Welcome to clerkship!

Id like to introduce you to the Saba University Chapter of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The goal of Saba IHI is the get students like yourself involved in improving patient quality of care. At any hospital you are rotating at, you may conduct your own quality improvement practicum with assistance from IHI. This can range from something as simple as a survey to an in-depth research project. Remember to bear in mind the length of time you are at the hospital when designing your project and remain practical. These projects usually require several months to complete, although it is possible to complete one within a month. To begin a practicum: 1. Register at IHI.org (free for students) 2. Go to: http://www.ihi.org/offerings/IHIOpenSchool/Courses/Pages/Practicum.aspx 3. Complete these online courses: a. QI 101: Fundamentals of Improvement b. QI 102: The Model for Improvement: Your Engine for Change c. QI 103: Measuring for Improvement 4. Then complete QI 201: Guide to the IHI Open School Quality Improvement Practicum Description: a. This course is designed to walk you through the process of conducting a quality improvement project. It will call on your knowledge and learning from many other IHI Open School courses, and help you apply quality improvement skills in a real-world setting. Unlike other courses in our catalog, you will submit documents after several of the lessons. b. Upon successful completion of the course, you will receive the IHI Open School Practicum Certificate, showing future employers and health care organizations that you have the skills, knowledge, and desire to improve care processes. c. To help make sure your project is headed in the right direction, we will review the project charter you submit after Lesson 2 and provide written feedback. Then, at the end, after you turn in your summary report, we will provide additional feedback about your project and the lessons learned.

5. The following documents at the end of each lesson are found here: http://www.ihi.org/offerings/IHIOpenSchool/Courses/Pages/PracticumForms.aspx Lesson 1: Teacher-learner agreement Lesson 2: Project charter Lesson 3: Cause and effect diagram Lesson 4: No documents submitted during this lesson Lesson 5: At least two PDSA cycles and a run char Lesson 6: Summary report

To get an idea of what kind of projects are done, visit this link on the IHI website: http://www.ihi.org/offerings/IHIOpenSchool/Courses/Pages/PracticumCompletedProjects.aspx This a great way to put something on your CV and can be done during your rotations. If you have any other questions, send them to openschool@ihi.org. Good luck!

Weyman Lam Saba University Chapter of IHI Bridgeport Hospital Representative