Founded in 1991, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a not-for-profit organization helping to "lead the improvement of health care throughout the world." The IHI aims to make changes in health care to improve patient safety and help health care systems put change into place and make it happen.
The IHI presents tools for quality improvement on a variety of topics from chronic conditions to HIV or patient-centered care and perinatal care. IHI's website offers links to literature, stories of successful improvement, and emerging content not yet published. IHI's president and CEO, Don Berwick was recently nominated to be the administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by President Obama.
IHI Open School Open to All
Although the courses of Open School are aimed at health professionals, for a limited time, the courses are available free to anyone, whether a health professions student or not. No application is required. Prospective students need only sign-up for an account with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement at the ihi.org website.
Once enrolled, students can begin courses in patient safety, quality improvement and leadership. There are no due dates, instead students take the courses at their leisure. Most conveniently the courses can be taken from the comfort of home at anytime of day or night. Each lesson takes approximately 15-30 minutes to complete. Users are required to pass a quiz at the end of each lesson, scoring at least 75% of the questions correctly. Those interested in registering for the IHI Open School courses can visit the Institute for Healthcare Improvement website and complete the registration information.
IHI Open School for Health Professionals and Students
Health professionals and health professions students can complete a set of required online courses in order to earn a certificate. Participants can turn the certificate in to employers or for continuing education credits. Completing the Open School courses shows a commitment to quality improvement and patient safety.
According to the IHI, Open School courses teach "students beginner, intermediate, and advanced competencies in quality improvement and patient safety." Health professions include medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, health care administration, and other allied health professions. While enrolled in traditional programs, health professions students can supplement or rather compliment their coursework with these IHI courses.
IHI Open School Course Format
Open School courses utilize a variety of teaching techniques in various formats. The lessons use videos, interviews with health care leaders and professionals, links to literature, discussions and more. There are six quality improvement courses including over 20 lessons, four patient safety courses including 14 lessons and one course on leadership covering four lessons.
The quality improvement courses go through the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle of Rapid Cycle Testing of process changes. Students can create their own improvement project using the PDSA cycle for an issue or problem they want to improve. The patient safety courses go through the importance of effective teams, basic tools and techniques for improving patient safety, how errors happen, and using technology to mitigate the impact of errors.
IHI Health Care Leadership
IHI Open School offers a course for leaders in health care, both current and potential. The course is titled "So You Want to Be a Leader in Health Care?" and teaches students how to think like a leader, how to persuade others to make changes and and how to assess leadership effectiveness. It is important to mention that the course introduction instructs students that "written reflections and discussions are key to this course."
Open School Discussions
Some of the learning modules included in the Open School courses ask students to participate in discussions. Typical forums include discussion on case studies, and any health care topics. Students can also join the IHI Open School for Health Professions Facebook group to participate in discussions and gain more information on the IHI.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement offers learning opportunities for health professions students and the general public. Courses are available on patient safety, leadership and quality improvement. Those interested can visit the IHI website for more information and watch for new classes to be added soon.
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