Video Transcript: How Can Young Professionals Get Involved in QI?

James Moses, MD, MPH; Medical Director of Quality Improvement, Boston Medical Center

I think it starts first and foremost with getting experience. So, in order to get experience, I think that young, budding professionals — really regardless of any profession that they’re in — the current setting of health care has moved so much in the last 10 years that finding the quality leaders within an organization is relatively straightforward, I think, in this day and age. Whether it’s a chief quality officer or a nursing quality leader or an administrative quality leader, whether it’s an ambulatory clinic or a hospital, those people exist because quality has gotten onto the national political regulatory financial platforms. And I think those are wonderful starting points for young professionals, just to set up early meetings with [them], because they’re going to need those leaders to help support their journey on their path toward quality.

And then they need a space that they can actually get to doing quality improvement (QI) in an actual clinical care area. And the wonderful thing is, QI always comes with the need for having people join the team. And I think through engaging leaders within the institution and asking for an opportunity to have that experience is the first step that one needs to take. And then eventually that one experience becomes two, three, and four, and you start becoming someone that is known as having this interest and hopefully has been effective in helping the team realize improvement. And more and more opportunities are going to come out of that.

We by no means have saturated the market in people doing QI. This is going to continue on being a need in the health care space, and, really, there is a real opportunity for all young professionals to get involved and make a meaningful difference.