Institute for Innovation and Improvement

NHS Institute uses staff development to make patients safer

The former NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement wanted to offer more to learners taking their new patient safety programme and approached us about accreditation.

Their brief

The NHS Institute identified a need to develop a practical programme to support individuals leading patient safety within an organisation – mainly clinicians, such as doctors, nurses and matrons. 

Using the US Patient Safety Officer Programme as a reference point, the Institute developed their own Patient Safety Leader programme. 

It approached us for accreditation so that participants could gain more formal recognition of their learning and acquire a valuable university-level qualification that would open up opportunities for further study.

Our solution

We worked with the NHS Institute to enhance and accredit the qualification. The programme was put through our rigorous quality assurance process, which included:

• Looking closely at course materials to determine the higher education level and number of credits.
• Ensuring the programme delivered the appropriate content, underpinning knowledge, critical thinking, analysis and reflection required from a university-level qualification, and that these supported each learning outcome.
• Acting as moderator – second-marking assignments and managing the independent scrutiny of assessment marks by an external examiner.   

The final programme was accredited as a Level 7 qualification (postgraduate) worth 30 credits. The material was delivered through a series of residentials and webinars. 

Areas of study included:

• Improvement for Healthcare (models and tools)
• Self Awareness and Team Working
• Patient Safety Interventions
• Measuring for Improvement and Patient Safety
• Sustainability
• Thinking Differently – Creativity

Networking and collaboration was a crucial element of the programme, to build confidence and bring about new ideas for developing safety practices. The course also brought together knowledge from across disciplines and applied these to the healthcare environment.  

“This was an excellent course enabling me to learn and experience different improvement techniques – both the theory and the practice. It has given me the confidence to embrace the challenge of improvement within the health service.” Susan Barnes, Quality Improvement Fellow, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Find out more

See our tailored  programme and accreditation services, or contact us on 0800 678 3311 or businesshub@derby.ac.uk