Open access. Since its publication in 2008, SQUIRE (Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence) has contributed to the completeness and transparency of reporting of quality improvement work, providing guidance to authors and reviewers of reports on healthcare improvement work. In the interim, enormous growth has occurred in understanding factors that influence the success, and failure, of healthcare improvement efforts. Progress has been particularly strong in three areas: the understanding of the theoretical basis for improvement work; the impact of contextual factors on outcomes; and the development of methodologies for studying improvement work. Consequently, there is now a need to revise the original publication guidelines. To reflect the breadth of knowledge and experience in the field, we solicited input from a wide variety of authors, editors and improvement professionals during the guideline revision process. This Explanation and Elaboration document (E&E) is a companion to the revised SQUIRE guidelines, SQUIRE 2.0.
April 2016: Statement 4 describing the use of compression stockings was removed. This is because the guidance from NICE has been updated and the advice on using compression stockings has changed. All other information remains the same.
Open access. Improving healthcare services can all too easily become synonymous with the use of certain in vogue tools for improving quality. Trigger tools, run charts and driver diagrams are just three examples of techniques used by frontline staff who are undertaking improvement work. Educators seeking to teach improvement are similarly faced with long lists of possible approaches and techniques with which to fill their course descriptions. As a consequence the temptation for improvement leaders and teachers is to include yet another technique in an already crowded curriculum, to add in more ‘stuff’.
But what if focusing so much on the tools is actually unhelpful? What if our attempts to create better and safer organisations is muddled rather than enhanced by the growing interest in so many techniques? Could we be putting off the very people we need to engage by the use of what can be seen as jargon? Might it lead people to see improvement as an event or a ‘project’ rather than as a way of working?
Read Chris Hall's latest blog, a reflection on the national guardian role and its impact on local guardians.
This is the fourth part in a series of blogs from Chris Hall, freedom to speak up guardian at Hounslow and Richmond Community NHS Trust, in which he shares his experiences as a guardian and the difference his role is making to staff and the organisation's culture around raising concerns.
P. Adamopoulos. ICIS, Association for Information Systems, (2013)The findings of our analysis illustrate that Professor(s) is the most important factor in online course retention and has the largest positive effect on the probability of a student to successfully complete a course. The sentiment of students for Assignments and Course Material also has positive effects on the successful completeness of a course whereas the Discussion Forum has a positive effect on the probability to partially complete a course. Furthermore, self-paced courses have a negative effect, compared to courses that follow a specific timetable. In addition, the difficulty, the workload, and the duration of a course have a negative effect. On the other hand, for the more difficult courses, self-paced timetable, longer duration in weeks, and more workload have a positive effect on the probability to successfully complete a course. Besides, final exams and projects, open textbooks, and peer assessment have also positive effects. Moreover, whether a certificate is awarded upon the successful completion of a course also affects retention. Additionally, the better a university is considered (i.e. higher ranking), the more likely that a student will successfully complete a course. Further, our results illustrate that the courses which belong to the academic disciplines of Business and Management, Computer Science, and Science have a positive significant effect in contrast to courses in other disciplines (i.e. Engineering, Humanities, and Mathematics). Finally, attrition was not found to be related with student characteristics (i.e. gender, formal education)..