Background: In 2018 the Clinical Learning Environment Review (CLER) Program reported that quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) programs in graduate medical education (GME) were largely unsuccessful in their efforts to transfer QI knowledge and substantive interprofessional QIPS experiences to residents, and CLER 2.0 called for improvement. However, little is known about how to improve the interprofessional clinical learning environment (IP-CLE) for QIPS in GME.
Objective: To determine the current state of the IP-CLE for QIPS at our institution with a focus on factors affecting the IP-CLE and resident integration into interprofessional QIPS teams.
Methods: We interviewed an interprofessional group of residents, faculty, and staff of key units engaged in IP QIPS activities. We performed thematic analysis through general inductive approach using template analysis methods on transcripts.
Results: Twenty individuals from 6 units participated. Participants defined learning on interprofessional QIPS teams as learning from and about each other's roles through collaboration for improvement, which occurs naturally when patients are the focus, or experiential teamwork within QIPS projects. Resident integration into these teams had various benefits (learning about other professions, effective project dissemination), barriers (difficult rotations or program structure, inappropriate assumptions), and facilitators (institutional support structures, promotion of QIPS culture, patient adverse events). There were various benefits (strengthened relationships, lowered bar for further collaboration), barriers (limited time, poor communication), and facilitators (structured meetings, educational culture) to a positive IP-CLE for QIPS.
Conclusions: Cultural factors prominently affected the IP-CLE and patient unforeseen events were valuable triggers for IP QIPS learning opportunities.