Learning experiences from an online QI fellowship programme during COVID-19 - a qualitative study
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Author(s)
Powell, Richard Antony
Sisya, Kandazi
Sriram, Vimal
Myron, Rowan
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, multiple aspects of everyday human existence were disrupted. In contrast, almost all levels of educational learning continued, albeit with modifications, including adaptation to virtual—or online—classroom experiences. This pedagogic transition also occurred in the National Institute of Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration Northwest London’s (NIHR ARC NWL) Improvement Leader Fellowship, an annual programme focusing on quality improvement (QI). This qualitative study aimed to understand how these changes impacted the Fellows’ learning experience.
Methods
We explored the experiences of two cohorts of programme Fellows (n = 18, 2020–2021 and n = 15, 2021–2022) with focus groups, analysed under a constructivist qualitative research paradigm.
Results
The two primary and four sub-themes that emerged were: Online QI learning experience (benefits and challenges) and Implementing online QI learning (facilitators and barriers). While benefits had three further sub-themes (i.e., digital flexibility, connection between learners, and respite from impact of COVID-19), challenges had four (i.e., lack of interaction, technological challenges and digital exclusion, human dimension, and digital fatigue). While the facilitators had three sub-themes (i.e., mutual and programmatic support, online resource access, and personal resilience), barriers had one (i.e., preventing implementation and lack of protected time).
Conclusion
Despite challenges to in-person ways of working, online learning generally worked for action-orientated QI learning, but changes are needed to ensure the effectiveness of future use of virtual learning for QI. Understanding the challenges of the translation of learning into action is crucial for implementation learning, gaining insight into how improvement Fellows navigated this translation when learning remotely and implementing directly in their workplace is key to understanding the evolving nature of implementation over the pandemic years and beyond.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, multiple aspects of everyday human existence were disrupted. In contrast, almost all levels of educational learning continued, albeit with modifications, including adaptation to virtual—or online—classroom experiences. This pedagogic transition also occurred in the National Institute of Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration Northwest London’s (NIHR ARC NWL) Improvement Leader Fellowship, an annual programme focusing on quality improvement (QI). This qualitative study aimed to understand how these changes impacted the Fellows’ learning experience.
Methods
We explored the experiences of two cohorts of programme Fellows (n = 18, 2020–2021 and n = 15, 2021–2022) with focus groups, analysed under a constructivist qualitative research paradigm.
Results
The two primary and four sub-themes that emerged were: Online QI learning experience (benefits and challenges) and Implementing online QI learning (facilitators and barriers). While benefits had three further sub-themes (i.e., digital flexibility, connection between learners, and respite from impact of COVID-19), challenges had four (i.e., lack of interaction, technological challenges and digital exclusion, human dimension, and digital fatigue). While the facilitators had three sub-themes (i.e., mutual and programmatic support, online resource access, and personal resilience), barriers had one (i.e., preventing implementation and lack of protected time).
Conclusion
Despite challenges to in-person ways of working, online learning generally worked for action-orientated QI learning, but changes are needed to ensure the effectiveness of future use of virtual learning for QI. Understanding the challenges of the translation of learning into action is crucial for implementation learning, gaining insight into how improvement Fellows navigated this translation when learning remotely and implementing directly in their workplace is key to understanding the evolving nature of implementation over the pandemic years and beyond.
Date Issued
2024-09-28
Date Acceptance
2024-09-16
Citation
BMC Health Services Research, 2024, 24
ISSN
1472-6963
Publisher
BMC
Journal / Book Title
BMC Health Services Research
Volume
24
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-024-11590-z
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1144
Date Publish Online
2024-09-28