Teaching Sustainable Quality Improvement

Course description

Health professions curricula increasingly require students and trainees to demonstrate skills for both sustainable healthcare and quality improvement. At the same time, achieving the NHS commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2040 requires healthcare staff to introduce changes in the workplace and innovate for further carbon reductions.

This short course uses the ‘SusQI’ framework, developed by CSH, to help health professions educators to integrate sustainability concepts into mainstream quality improvement education programmes. It meets curriculum requirements while also responding to growing concern about the need for the health sector to respond to the climate and ecological emergency, and lead by example.  The course is equally applicable to educators of all health professions and to the undergraduate and postgraduate level. 

Supported by Health Education England, King's College London and the Health Foundation. 

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you will be able to:

1. Apply sustainable healthcare concepts to quality improvement education;  
2. Use SusQI to increase learners’ motivation for healthcare improvement; 
3. Adapt examples of SusQI projects to your teaching context; 
4. Develop tools to assess student learning.

Part 1: Self study online - 4-6 hours of interactive online materials, presented in bite-sized modules, covering theory and practice. You will be guided through the open access SusQI Educator pack which contains template teaching sessions, student project resources and case studies.  A discussion forum allows you to meet like-minded educators and get to know each other. A short video on the home page outlines how to navigate the learning platform and obtain your certificate of completion. These learning materials are available to you from the point of booking and you will continue to have access to them for 6 months after the workshop. You can see a table of contents for the self study materials here.

Part II. Live workshop - This 2.5 hour interactive virtual workshop consolidates your understanding of the course materials. The timetable includes pre-session technical assistance and networking, followed by a review of the self-study material with Q & A. In breakout groups you will take part in a demonstration of SusQI teaching and explore different approaches. By the end of the workshop you should feel equipped to integrate the SusQI framework into Quality Improvement teaching.

“This framework has radically altered how I approach quality improvement, in how I deliver quality improvement to the students I teach, in my own practice and in how I appraise the work of others”

- Noreen Ryan, Domain Lead for Quality Healthcare, Imperial College London School of Medicine

© 2024 Centre for Sustainable Healthcare