Last month, our Editorial Director, Mike Briddon, asked if I’d be interested in presenting about the IHI Open School to a conference of nursing faculty. “Me?” I thought. “I am neither a nurse nor a professor. What could I have to teach such an experienced group?” Then I came up with an idea showcase the work of nursing professors, and illustrate how they use the Open School courses in their teaching. I set up phone calls with three innovators, asked them for some tips, and shared their stori ... read full post

The IHI Open School Chapter at Brock University, in Ontario, Canada, is one of the most active in the Open School community. Recently, Brock University and its partners won a $41,000 grant to support an innovative elective they created to provide students with hands-on experience doing quality improvement projects with a nearby health system. Needless to say, winning such a large sum for quality improvement education isn’t a situation most Chapters find themselves in, so we reached out to Madely ... read full post

It’s the time of year when the IHI Open School checks in with our more than 700 Chapters worldwide. Each year, we ask each Chapter to submit a Chapter Progress Report, to help us understand what you’ve accomplished and what the Open School team can do to support you. Be sure to have your voice heard, and submit your report this year by June 1. To show you why this matters, we thought we’d share some of our learnings from last year’s Chapter Progress Reports. Here’s what you said you needed fro ... read full post

In the following essay, Sigal Israilov, a student at the City of New York Macaulay Honors College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, describes her work on a team that improved the discharge process at Mount Sinai Medical Center — leading to a 73 percent increase in discharges before noon. If you're interested in leading your own quality improvement initiative, check out the IHI Open School Practicum — a guide to applying quality improvement in your own local project. (Note This ess ... read full post