Q Exchange
Systems thinking in healthcare: looking beyond the boundaries.
- Proposal
- 2024
Meet the team
Also:
- Ralph Mackinnon
- Claire Cox
- Richard Brownhill
- Mikela Chatzimichailidou
- Riccardo Patriarca
- David Slater
- Kim Anderson
- Misha Denise Virtudazo
- Al Ross
- Jaqueline Viana
- Samantha Bray
- John Tansley
What is the challenge your project is going to address and how does it connect to the theme of 'How can we improve across system boundaries?
Navigating the intricacies of healthcare processes poses a significant challenge due to their inherent complexity. This project addresses this challenge by providing FRAM training materials for healthcare professionals. Collaborating with Professor Hollnagel’s global FRAMily and diverse healthcare partners, the initiative aims to utilise systems thinking effectively.
FRAM’s unique contribution lies in its ability to unveil the interconnectedness of elements across boundaries, transcending departmental and organisational silos and layers. Through FRAM, healthcare professionals can gain insights into the dynamic relationships within the healthcare landscape, fostering a holistic perspective on work processes. The project’s objective is to instil a recognition that effective healthcare solutions require departing from traditional, isolated viewpoints. By imparting FRAM skills, this initiative aims to cultivate a culture of systems thinking, quality improvement, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, and patient-centred care in the face of ongoing changes in the healthcare domain.
What does your project aim to achieve?
The project aims to build the capacity and competence to understand complex systems using FRAM. This is fully supported formally by the worldwide FRAMily group.
The project’s objectives are:
· setting up a FRAM Q community
· to make available FRAM training course materials
· feeding back learning into the community.
We will start by building a Q community of practice and linking it with the existing UK initiatives and the UK FRAMily community. We will help further develop the FRAM training course materials with the community, run workshops, and encourage the community to apply what they have learned and share lessons learned. We will collate any shared examples and make these available to the community. The project will enable anyone in the Q community to use the materials to apply FRAM in their work settings and share expertise and experience in regular community meetings.
How will the project be delivered?
The project team involves experts from various healthcare professions, safety science experts and human factors experts from different industries and FRAMily, which is an industry-agnostic community that shares knowledge, experience and case studies across several sectors.
Over a 12-month period, the project will be structured into three main work packages (WPs):
WP1: Setting up a FRAM Q community linked to the broader FRAMily; this involves creating/involving a special interest group in Q.
WP2: Producing and testing FRAM training course materials in the community and subject matter experts.
WP3: Feeding back learning into the community with regular seminars and workshops.
The community use of FRAM would enable the identification of complex system interactions and problems that might be caused by undesired variabilities. This would help take preventative measures and improve the quality of care delivered.
How is your project going to share learning?
We will share learning with Q members, participating organisations and wider research and industrial communities.
By setting up a FRAM Q community and linking it to the wider FRAMily community, we can share learning among a worldwide community that involves researchers and practitioners from various industries. We will encourage Q members to share their applications and experiences using FRAM. This will enable Q members to learn lessons from other safety-critical industries. Our team members will also help us reach a wider healthcare community.
We will host workshops, and participants will share what they have learned. We aim to share all materials and lessons learned on the Q and FRAMily community platforms.
The success of the project will be measured by the attendance at workshops, user feedback on the course materials and follow-up FRAM applications by the community.
How you can contribute
- Promote the project
- Any comments?
- Anyone who would like to contribute or take part in the project
- Volunteer to participate
Plan timeline
| 1 Sep 2023 | Kickoff meeting |
|---|---|
| 1 Sep 2024 | Facilitating setting up a FRAM community |
| 1 Oct 2024 | Identification of the user needs and system requirements |
| 6 Jan 2025 | Developing design concepts for the FRAM training materials |
| 3 Feb 2025 | Mid Project Meeting |
| 7 Apr 2025 | Testing the developed materials |
| 1 Jul 2025 | Feeding back learning into the community |
| 31 Aug 2025 | Project closure |
Comments
Cheryl Davies 4 Mar 2024
This sounds like a great project - much needed!
Samantha Bray 28 Feb 2024
I would be interested in being involved, I am currently on the System Thinking Practice course at Cranfield.
John Tansley 29 Feb 2024
This looks very interesting. I would also be keen to support this at SFHFT where Sam and I are colleagues.
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 29 Feb 2024
Thanks, Samantha. We would appreciate your involvement. Also, I hope that you are enjoying the System Thinking Practice course at Cranfield.
Misha Denise Virtudazo 28 Feb 2024
I’d like to be involved in any way that I can help. I am a predoctoral clinical academic fellow and my focus would touch on human factors. Would be a privilege to learn with experts from the team.
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 29 Feb 2024
Thanks, Misha; it would be great to have your involvement in this project.
Kim Anderson 28 Feb 2024
Hi,
I would really love to become involved and contribute.
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 29 Feb 2024
Hi Kim, thanks for your support, and welcome to our team.
Clare Crowley 27 Feb 2024
This is much needed as there is interest in better understanding systems analysis frameworks in health and social care, but FRAM is complex and not covered by existing programs to upskill those working in patient safety. Nor is there any training course currently available on FRAM. Delighted to see this proposal and would be great to develop a community of practice around this.
Clare Crowley 27 Feb 2024
Very happy to support, I have used FRAM a few times and keen to contribute and learn more. Thanks
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 27 Feb 2024
Thanks, Clare. We would appreciate your support in moving this idea forward.
Jaqueline Viana 26 Feb 2024
Good morning everyone! I was delighted to hear about the formation of a group for the FRAM project. For the last few years I have been working on the design of public health workflows and have also used FRAM as an analytical tool. It would be an honour to participate in this project.
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 26 Feb 2024
Thanks, Jaqueline. We would appreciate it if you could participate in the design stage of the course and contribute to building this community. Also, we would love to hear more about your experiences on the use of FRAM.
Michelle Beattie 26 Feb 2024
Oh love it. I think this is a really good idea and would like to be involved wherever possible. I've been involved with QI for many years with systems thinking at the heart of it, so I like the idea of creating education to support understanding/culture change to move away for silo working.
Paul Bowie 26 Feb 2024
Hi Michelle, thanks for the support and good to hear from you. It would be good to catch-up about this and other Human Factors developments in Scotland. Do you mind dropping me an email please paul.bowie@nhs.scot many thanks, Paul
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 26 Feb 2024
Thanks, Michelle; it is great to hear that. It would be really appreciated if you could participate in the design stage of the course and contribute to building this community.
Nicholas Seaton 26 Feb 2024
This looks like a brilliant idea and initiative. I'm sure lots of people in the domain have been looking for support and education to do FRAM, it has been on the radar for some time but it can look a bit intimidating!
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 26 Feb 2024
Thanks, Nicholas. It would be great to have your insights in the design stage and support in building the community.
Claire Cox 25 Feb 2024
Fantastic idea. I would be one of the first to sign up for a course like this. It would be so valuable in the world of patient safety - any tool that would help us understand the system vulnerabilities would be amazing.
Mark Sujan 25 Feb 2024
Thanks, Claire. I would hope that you'd be involved in the co-design of the course, and contribute to building this community. It would be brilliant to have your insights and passion for patient safety drive this initiative forward.
Deborah Dover 24 Feb 2024
This sounds like a brilliant idea and I really hope you are successful with the funding. Please feel free to keep me in the loop and reach out to me if I can support in any way. I'm sure ELFT would be keen to be involved. deborahdover@nhs.net
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 24 Feb 2024
Thanks, Deborah. That is great to hear. I will keep you in the loop.
Richard Brownhill 23 Feb 2024
I think any attempt to develop familiarity, utilisation and spread of hf tools is a great initiative. Tools in particular do need practice especially things like FRAM.
So often quasi scientific causes and effects are described in healthcare and not enough time spent on understanding complexity and what’s actually happening meaning we may miss opportunities to influence improvement. Great iniative
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 23 Feb 2024
Thanks, Richard. FRAM is a great tool for exploring complex systems and is widely used in academia. We are hoping to make it more accessible and understandable to all by supporting the community on its application.
Simon Gill PhD BEng CEng MRAeS 23 Feb 2024
Thank you for submitting this idea. I think it would be a hugely valuable contribution to the healthcare world. Please keep me in the loop on this and let me know if there is any way in which I can help in the campaign to get this funded and in the project once your secure the funding!
Gulsum Kubra Kaya 23 Feb 2024
Thanks, Simon. Your support is highly appreciated!
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