Monday, June 13, 2016

Needs assessment of quality improvement knowledge in pediatric hematology/oncology clinicians

Cathleen Cook
East Tennessee State University/St. Jude Tri-Cities Affiliate Clinic
 
Background: Since the publication of Crossing the Quality Chasm by the Institute of Medicine, quality improvement has been incorporated into all medical training programs despite inadequate training of faculty tasked with training future generations of providers.

Aims: This pilot project was designed to explore whether a gap in knowledge or a discrepancy in competency of quality improvement existed amongst a sample of pediatric hematology/ oncology physicians.

Methods: 57 (38%) of 150 queried pediatric hematology/oncology providers completed a QI needs assessment. The tool included 25 items comprised of demographic inquiries, subjective items using a Likert scale, and objective components including three clinical case scenarios of common patient safety issues.

Results: Analysis demonstrated the sample of pediatric hematology/oncology providers self-evaluated themselves as somewhat confident in quality improvement. Further, a majority of respondents ranked their QI competency similar to or slightly above that of a graduating pediatric resident. Lastly, self-assessment positively correlated to performance one clinical case illustrating an error in patient hand-offs and not the other two cases that involved a patient with febrile neutropenia or non-compliance with practice guidelines, respectively.

Conclusion: This pilot project revealed the existence of a knowledge gap and discrepancy in competency of pediatric hematology/ oncology providers tasked with mentoring and training future pediatric specialty physicians.