Involving medical students in service improvement: evaluation of a student-led, extracurricular, multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative

• Main Authors: Radenkovic D, Mackenzie R, Bracke S, Mundy A, Craig D, Gill D, Levi M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2019-09-01
• Series: Advances in Medical Education and Practice
• Subjects: Quality Improvement; Clinical Leadership; Medical Education
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/involving-medical-students-in-service-improvement-evaluation-of-a-stud-peer-reviewed-article-AMEP

Dina Radenkovic,1,* Rebecca Mackenzie,1,* Sophie Bracke,1 Anthony Mundy,2 Duncan Craig,3 Deborah Gill,1 Marcel Levi2 1Faculty of Medical Sciences, University College London, Medical School, London, UK; 2Chief Executive Office, University College London Hospital, London, UK; 3Faculty of Life Sciences, University College London, School of Pharmacy, London, UK*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Dina RadenkovicAcademic Department, St Thomas Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH, UKTel [phone]Email [e-mail]: Quality improvement (QI) is considered a duty of every doctor and, as such, it is fundamental that medical schools nurture QI skills of medical students. At a London medical school, a novel initiative was designed to involve medical students in QI. Such novel aspects include its student leadership, multidisciplinary approach and extra-curricular nature. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative, and thus add to the experiences of existing medical student QI programs, as well as provide guidance to other institutions wishing to involve medical students in QI.Methods: The key features of the initiative’s design is described. Its effectiveness was evaluated by the collection of retrospective data on the quality of the initiative’s QI projects (QIPs), including the proportion which: 1) reached completion; 2) resulted in a significant improvement in their primary outcome; 3) had sustained results at follow-up; 4) achieved publication; and 5) contributed towards a prize or conference presentation.Results: There were 109 students involved throughout 10 projects from 14 different undergraduate and postgraduate courses from 2015–2019. 50% of the initiative’s projects achieved a significant improvement in their primary outcome, and the proportion of projects which sustained these improvements at follow-up was 100%. Furthermore, 20% of projects were published, and 60% contributed towards a prize or conference presentation.Conclusion: The results of this study show that the initiative was effective at involving medical students in QI. As such, other groups establishing medical student QI programs may benefit from replicating positive elements of its design and operation.Keywords: quality improvement, clinical leadership, medical education