Strategies for implementing Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) education: educator perspectives
File(s)
Author(s)
Stanford, Victoria
Leedham-Green, Kathleen
Clack, Alice
Parslow Williams, Siobhan
Ratnappuli, Ayoma
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The climate and ecological emergencies represent a significant threat to health, and yet healthcare is a major contributor to environmental degradation. Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) is a framework that enables healthcare professionals to improve how good health is achieved and healthcare delivered in line with social, economic and environmental sustainability goals. SusQI education provides healthcare learners with the knowledge and practical skills for sustainable clinical transformation.
We interviewed eleven SusQI course leads at ten educational sites in the UK and Republic of Ireland, exploring educator perspectives on how SusQI can be successfully implemented in diverse health educational contexts. Our aim was to identify what works, in which contexts, and why. We thematically analysed the interviews and tabulated case study details.
We identified four interlinked themes: choosing SusQI, getting it into the curriculum, making it work, and embedding it. Each of these stages was influenced by factors related to the educators themselves, their students, and their institution, as well as specific educational or curricular factors. The most successful implementations demonstrated synergistic benefits for both learners and institutions, engendering self-sustaining communities of practice.
Strong institutional commitment, distributed expertise, and opportunities for supported project work emerge as key success factors. Together these fostered self-sustaining virtuous cycles of stakeholder engagement, transformative educational impacts, and progress towards sustainable clinical practice.
What is already known:
Prior research established SusQI's potential to engage and motivate learners to contribute to the creation of a sustainable healthcare system, but this lacked detailed insights into SusQI’s practical implementation in diverse educational settings.
What this study adds:
Course leads from ten clinical education settings reveal why they chose to teach SusQI, how they integrated it into their curricula, how they made it work for learners and host organisations alike, and how they addressed any contextual challenges. The findings offer practical guidance for educators seeking to embed SusQI effectively, improving the ability of learners to contribute to more sustainable healthcare delivery.
Implications and applications:
Making the wider co-benefits of learner-led SusQI project work visible to all stakeholders, thereby creating self-sustaining communities of practice, emerges as a key success factor. This research reveals the potential for agile educational innovation through distributed expertise and shared learning to address the urgency of the ecological crisis within the healthcare sector.
We interviewed eleven SusQI course leads at ten educational sites in the UK and Republic of Ireland, exploring educator perspectives on how SusQI can be successfully implemented in diverse health educational contexts. Our aim was to identify what works, in which contexts, and why. We thematically analysed the interviews and tabulated case study details.
We identified four interlinked themes: choosing SusQI, getting it into the curriculum, making it work, and embedding it. Each of these stages was influenced by factors related to the educators themselves, their students, and their institution, as well as specific educational or curricular factors. The most successful implementations demonstrated synergistic benefits for both learners and institutions, engendering self-sustaining communities of practice.
Strong institutional commitment, distributed expertise, and opportunities for supported project work emerge as key success factors. Together these fostered self-sustaining virtuous cycles of stakeholder engagement, transformative educational impacts, and progress towards sustainable clinical practice.
What is already known:
Prior research established SusQI's potential to engage and motivate learners to contribute to the creation of a sustainable healthcare system, but this lacked detailed insights into SusQI’s practical implementation in diverse educational settings.
What this study adds:
Course leads from ten clinical education settings reveal why they chose to teach SusQI, how they integrated it into their curricula, how they made it work for learners and host organisations alike, and how they addressed any contextual challenges. The findings offer practical guidance for educators seeking to embed SusQI effectively, improving the ability of learners to contribute to more sustainable healthcare delivery.
Implications and applications:
Making the wider co-benefits of learner-led SusQI project work visible to all stakeholders, thereby creating self-sustaining communities of practice, emerges as a key success factor. This research reveals the potential for agile educational innovation through distributed expertise and shared learning to address the urgency of the ecological crisis within the healthcare sector.
Date Acceptance
2025-05-01
Citation
BMJ Open Quality
ISSN
2399-6641
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Open Quality
Copyright Statement
Subject to copyright. This paper is embargoed until publication. Once published the Version of Record (VoR) will be available on immediate open access.
License URL
Subjects
Education, Medical
Sustainable Development
Quality Improvement
Sustainable Healthcare
Publication Status
Accepted
Coverage Spatial
UK
Article Number
bmjoq-2024-003055.R1