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A discussion about what we’re learning during the COVID-19 pandemic – join in (1)

Q's Community Engagement Manager, Matthew Mezey, discusses how Q members and other improvers are finding more effective ways to learn together during the COVID-19 crisis.

For many of us the human cost of COVID-19 has been high: my own ageing father has overcome the virus after two weeks in hospital; one Q member had to make a heartbreaking farewell over Facetime, and many others are playing their part in supporting the fight against COVID-19.

On top of our personal experiences, what’s also become starkly clear is the widely shared need to find new ways of sharing learning, taking it out of the silos and across boundaries.

Q member, Clare Rees commented: “How can we capture excellent and innovative practice to ensure it lasts after the pandemic?”

Simon Gill, Director, The Safeguarding Community

To learn from our new world of work the convenor of Q’s Organisational Resilience & Safety-II SIG Simon Gill has organised a Zoom this week: ‘COVID-19: Safety-II in action’ (please register). He will be joined by Suzette Woodward and Paul Stretton to share experiences and learning, alongside the participants.

Simon is himself also seeking funding, as part of a collaboration involving the Mayo Clinic and others, for new infrastructure that would answer Clare’s challenge on capturing new practices. (You can contact Simon on Twitter if you’re interested in finding out more).

The growing Safety-II approach to building patient safety feels a natural fit for fast learning and innovating amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on understanding the complex, messy, yet usually effective reality of work-as-done. This contrasts with our conventional approach with its more linear ‘find and fix’ mentality; seeking out errors and divergences from work-as-prescribed.

This conversation will be one of many, as the Q team works with members and others to support health and care services to capture and learn from the rapid innovation and improvement that is taking place during this time. Join us on Thursday, and keep an eye out for other opportunities to collaborate, share and learn coming soon.

This is the first blog in a series I’ll be writing around this topic.

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