How to get started in quality improvement

### What you need to know Quality improvement (box 1) is a core component of many undergraduate and postgraduate curriculums.12345 Numerous healthcare organisations,6 professional regulators,7 and policy makers8 recognise the benefits of training clinicians in quality improvement. Box 1 ### Defining quality improvement1RETURN TO TEXT Engaging in quality improvement enables clinicians to acquire, assimilate, and apply important professional capabilities7 such as managing complexity and training in human factors.1 For clinical trainees, it is a chance to improve care9; develop leadership, presentation, and time management skills to help their career development10; and build relationships with colleagues in organisations that they have recently joined.11 For more experienced clinicians, it is an opportunity to address longstanding concerns about the way in which care processes and systems are delivered, and to strengthen their leadership for improvement skills.12 The benefits to patients, clinicians, and healthcare providers of engaging in quality improvement are considerable, but there are many challenges involved in designing, delivering, and sustaining an improvement intervention. These range from persuading colleagues that there is a problem that needs to be tackled, through to keeping them engaged once the intervention is up and running as other clinical priorities compete for their attention.13 You are also …