These interdisciplinary teams design and participate in Quality Improvement (QI) projects by using clearly articulated aims, quantitative targets, and problem-solving improvement techniques.
The following chart illustrates statistics regarding our QI projects program over the past two years:
| 2010-2011 | 2011-2012 | |
| Number of applicants | 71 | 95 |
| Number of participants | 25 | 45 |
| Number of different disciplines represented | 6 | 10 |
| Number of QI projects | 6 | 8 |
Participating Healthcare Centres (both current and former)
- Toronto Western Family Health Team (2010)
- Meighen Manor Long Term Care Centre (2010)
- Hospital for Sick Children (2010, 2011, 2012)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (2010)
- Bridgepoint Hospital (2010, 2011)
- St. Joseph’s Hospital (2010, 2011, 2012)
- Sherbourne Family Health Team (2011)
- St. Michael’s Hospital (2011, 2012)
- Toronto General Hospital (2011)
- Sunnybrook Health Sciences (2011, 2012)
- Southeast Family Health Team (2011, 2012)
- *New* Trillium Healthcare Centre (2012)
- *New* Scarborough Hospital (2012)
- *New* Providence Healthcare Centre (2012)
- *New* UHN Telehealth (2012)
Examples of Past Projects
The following are past projects that have been completed by student teams:
Sick Kids (2010-2011)
Increasing communication of patient isolation status among nurses in the hospital. Some interventions included stapling a clip sheet to the primary nurses’ care plan as a reminder to report isolation status at break coverage handovers. Another intervention was adding an isolation status prompt on charge nurses electronic report sheet. The third intervention was a combination of both the clip sheet and the prompt intervention.
UHN (2011-2012)
Developing a interaction workshop to enhance awareness of patient centered care and patient safety among hospital staff. The workshop had elements of play called “Seeing the forest,” which uses arts to communicate the importance of patient safety, as well as, a interactive discussion session with debrief and reflection.
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Centre (2012-2013)
Testing the effects of implementing an online MRI examination booking system on requisition handling times and procedure wait times at St. Joseph’s Healthcare centre. The student team found that the intervention, online MRI examination booking system, did reduce wait times for certain procedures.
Student Testimonials
“Unique experience where I learned a lot and met students from various different health care professions!”
“Great experience in going through the PDSA cycles, good networking opportunities to meet others in the field, positive impact for the community.”
92% of participating students would recommend our QI project experience to their peers.