Agendas

Date 

Topic

Objectives

Nov. 3

1. Introduction to Health Equity and Quality Improvement

1. Define health equity.
2. Describe the difference between equity and equality.
3. Describe how quality improvement will be integrated into the curriculum for this program.
4. Characterize the historical origins of quality improvement in healthcare and other industries.

Nov. 17

1. Cultural Sensitivity – Foundational Awareness
2. Understanding the basics of Infection Control infrastructure

1. Describe the cultural sensitivity spectrum.
2. Define cultural sensitivity.
3. Describe the ways in which facility-level policies and procedures can support COVID-19 infection prevention and control.
4. Identify changes to facility-level policies and procedures which can improve COVID-19 infection prevention and control for patients who are at higher risk and historically underserved.

Dec. 1

1. Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination: Strategies and Communication
2. Understanding Cultural Values and Attitudes

1. Recognize the barriers to vaccine access and confidence that are most likely to impact patients who are at higher risk and historically underserved, including racial and ethnic minority populations and people living in rural communities.
2. Integrate knowledge of these barriers into conversations with staff regarding vaccine hesitancy.
3. Define cultural values, beliefs, and practices.

Dec. 15

1. Health Equity Historical Context
2. Quality Improvement Human Factors and Systems Thinking

1. Recognize and explain the role of human factors in work processes and error analysis in healthcare
2. Describe systems thinking and how this relates to the Swiss Cheese Model
3. Give a historical example of medical racism.
4. Recognize the present-day impact of historical medical experimentation.

Jan. 5

1. Long-term complications of COVID-19 (part 1)
2. Cultural attitudes (part 2)

1. Identify the long-term complications associated with COVID-19 infection.
2. Apply best practices in the management of long-term complications associated with COVID-19 infection to tests of change in your facility.
3. Reflect on how their own cultural values and beliefs impact their engagement with COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.

Jan. 19

1. Infection Prevention and Control Risk Assessment
2. Different Forms of Racism

1. Characterize the principles of effective risk assessment for CoVID-19.
2. Apply these principles to risk assessment in your facility to identify areas for intervention and improvement.
3. Demonstrate how structural racism impacts health care.
4. Differentiate between the different forms of racism (i.e., structural; systemic; interpersonal; etc.).

Date

Topic

Objectives

Feb. 2

1. Cultural Practices (part 3/3) (behaviors)
2. QI Root Causes 1/6: What is the problem you are trying to solve?

1. Describe three examples of cultural practices.
2. Identify the characteristics of effective problem statements and their role in supporting quality improvement.
3. Demonstrate the ability to develop effective problem statements for quality improvement projects in your facility.

Feb. 16

1. Social Determinants of Health 1/6: overview; socioecological model
2. QI Root Causes 2/6: What is your process?

1. Recognize the impact that social and structural factors have on health outcomes.
2. Recognize the importance of process mapping as a foundational step in quality improvement projects.
3. Apply process mapping to quality improvement projects in your facility.

March 2

1. Social Determinants of Health 2/6: economic stability.
2. QI Root Causes 3/6: Where are the known or potential points of failure?

1. Explain how inequities in housing, employment, food security, and income affect health outcomes.
2. Recognize effective methods for identifying potential points of failure or human error in a process.
3. Illustrate how these methods can be applied to improve the reliability of processes in your facility..

March 16

1. Social Determinants of Health 3/6: education access and quality.
2. QI Root Causes 4/6: How will you know your process is reliable?

1. Describe how inequities in early childhood education and development, higher education, and language and literacy affect health outcomes.
2. Identify the key characteristics of a reliable process.
3. Relate these characteristics to both existing and new processes in your facility to understand whether they are likely to be reliably implemented

April 6

1. Social Determinants of Health 4/6:  neighborhood and built environment. 
2. QI Root Causes 5/6: Why are these parts of the process unreliable?

1. Discuss the impact that crime, violence, and environmental conditions have on a person's health outcomes
2. Recognize effective methods for identifying the root cause of potential points of failure or human error in a process.
3. Apply these methods to learn about the root causes of unreliability in processes in your facility.

April 20

1. Social Determinants of Health 5/6: health care access and quality.
2. QI Root Causes 6/6: What would success look like? (Aim Statements)

1. Identify the impact that access to health care and health literacy have on a person's health outcomes.
2. Identify the characteristics of effective aim statements and their role in framing quality improvement projects.
3. Demonstrate the ability to develop effective aim statements for quality improvement projects in your facility.

Date

Topic

Objectives

May 4

1. SDOH 6/6: social and community context
2. IPC: COVID-19 Management and Treatment Updates

1. Apply a determinants of health approach to providing patient care.
2. Describe changes to guidance on COVID-19 management and treatment over the course of the pandemic.
3. Articulate the research basis for recent changes in COVID-19 management and treatment.

May 18

1. CS: Communications across cultures
2. IPC: Long-term Complications of COVID-19 Infection (part 2)

1. CS: Explain differences in communication styles across cultures.
2. IPC-1. Characterize the ways in which our understanding of the long-term complications associated with COVID-19 infection has evolved in the last six months.
3. IPC-2. Identify resources in your facility or community that can be leveraged to address these complications.

June 1

1. CS: Explicit bias.
2. QI: Change management (part 1/2): Strategies for Managing through Failure

1. CS: Reflect on an explicit bias they hold.
2. QI-1. Describe the constructive role that failure plays in the quality improvement process.
3. QI-2. Discuss strategies for preserving motivation and morale in health care teams working through failure.

June 15

1. CS: Implicit bias.
2. QI: Change management (part 2/2): Securing Buy-in and “Selling” Your Improvements

1. CS-1: Describe an example of implicit bias.
2. CS-2: Differentiate between explicit and implicit bias.
3. QI-1. Articulate effective strategies for securing buy-in from leadership and key stakeholders.
4. QI-2. Discuss strategies for aligning your QI project with institutional priorities.

July 6

1. IPC Outbreak Identification & Response
2. QI: Applying QI tools to root cause identification and management 

1. IPC-1. Describe the critical elements of an effective approach to COVID-19 surveillance.
2. IPC-2. Articulate the principles of an effective outbreak response strategy for COVID-19.
3. QI-1. Apply QI tools to the identification of the root causes of error in improvement projects relevant to COVID-19.

July 20

1. HE: Communicating health equity; emotional intelligence.
2. IPC: Antibiotic Stewardship

1. HE-1: Define emotional intelligence.
2. HE-2: Name one health equity guiding principle for inclusive communication.
3. IPC-1: Define and characterize antimicrobial stewardship in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.
4. IPC-2: Discuss strategies for improving antimicrobial stewardship during and after a pandemic.