Building a whole new mind: an interprofessional experience in patient safety and quality improvement education using the IHI Open School.

INTRODUCTION: Throughout the last decade, there has been a significant move toward integrating patient safety and quality improvement concepts into health professions education, essentially building a whole new mind in terms of medical knowledge. While existing literature has suggested possible means of implementation, little research has described outcomes and specific examples of integration. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School offers a curriculum that could be incorporated in most health professions training. This project serves to study implementation of Open School courses, garner student feedback and guide the implementation of quality and safety curricula across health disciplines in South Dakota.
METHODS: First-year medical and allied health students at the University of South Dakota completed surveys before and after having one introductory lecture and finishing two of the Open School courses in interprofessional teams within an existing health professions course.
RESULTS: Medical student means showed significant differences in 16 of 16 (p=0.05) primary teaching points related to Open School course objectives, while allied health students showed significant differences in 13 of 16 (p=0.05) points. Students valued an introductory lecture and thought their educational experience was enhanced by the addition of the Open School courses.
CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the Open School courses chosen for this sample of interprofessional students provide a simple, inexpensive and effective method to implement quality and patient safety concepts within existing health professions curricula.