PDSA Flashcards
What do the letters PDSA stand for?
PLAN
DO
STUDY
ACT
Patients or clients should be part of the team in quality improvement work. TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE
SMART stands for…
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely
Consider this ‘SMART’ goal.
We will triage 80% of children aged 0-8 years arriving in the Emergency Department within 10 minutes of arrival.
Which elements of SMART do you think might be problematic? Explain your answer briefly.
Attainable - it depends on what the department is already able to achieve. While a SMART goal should be stretching, it should not
be an unrealistic stretch. If the department is able to see 30% of children in this time span at the moment that this is too much of an increase.
The SMART goal also does not include a time-bound element - we do not know how long we have to get from where we are now
to this goal. That time span needs to be realistic.
There is also a lack of specificity - which children will be seen within ten minutes? And does this include all hours of the day and all times of the year?
Re-write this goal to that it is SMART.
We will mark student’s work and release marks quickly
S: essay assignment marks and feedback will be released at 20 days from the submission date.
M: We will monitor submission dates and timely release of marks. Marks and feedback not released at 20 days will be reported as a breach.
A: We have demonstrated that most modules are able to achieve this.
R: Students’ must have their marks and feedback returned to be able to make good use of them for their next piece of work.
T: We will achieve this within six months.
By [insert date in 6 months] we will ensure the marks and feedback for 100% of student essays submitted on time will be returned to the student 20 days after the submission date.
In SMART goals the A stands for achievable or attainable. Briefly describe what is meant by this
The goal should be realistic and within your resources, skills, and capabilities. While it should be challenging enough to motivate you,
it must also be possible to reach.
In SMART goals the R stands for realistic or relevant. Briefly describe what is meant by this.
Either answer is okay here:
Realistic: This means the goal is something you can reasonably achieve with your current resources, skills, and the constraints you face. It challenges you without being so out of reach that it feels impossible.
Relevant: This means the goal aligns with your overall objectives, values, or long-term aspirations. It answers the question: “Why is this goal important to me?”
Why there are two interpretations:
The original formulation of SMART emphasized “realistic.” However, many experts now favor “relevant” because it places greater emphasis on whether the goal truly matters to you, which is a key factor in motivation.
Which interpretation is best?
The best choice often depends on the context:
Personal Development: “Relevant” often works better, keeping you focused on goals that genuinely resonate with you.
Practical/Professional Settings: “Realistic” might be preferred to ensure goals are feasible and align with available resources.
Which of the following is part of the PLAN stage of the PDSA cycle?
Collection of baseline data
Implementing the change e.g. using the new documentation
Providing ongoing support to the team using the new process
Rolling out the change over a wider area
Collection of baseline data
Which one of the following is part of the DO stage of the PDSA cycle?
Ensure all the required resources are ready to use.
Decide what resources will be needed.
Decide what data needs to be collected.
Decide which staff need to be involved.
Ensure all the required resources are ready to use
I am going to undertake a PDSA cycle in my neonatal unit. The problem we have identified is that our mother’s are not beginning to
produce large enough volumes of breast milk for their babies when they are being cared for immediately following birth in the neonatal
unit. We want to see an increase of 200% in the number of mothers whose milk ‘comes in’ within 72 hours of giving birth. The current
level is 10%.
[Tip: this means that 1 in 10 mothers currently produce enough milk, and we want the figure to be 4 in 10].
Briefly describe what sort of sample size of mothers you should aim for when doing your first cycle of PDSA.
It would be appropriate to use ten mothers to start with. This would be enough to show we made the change.
The student might also offer some of the following as explanation.
PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycles use small samples for several key reasons:
Speed and Agility: Small samples allow for rapid testing and learning. You can quickly implement a change, collect data, and get feedback within a short timeframe. This allows you to iterate quickly and refine your solution as needed, rather than waiting for long periods of time, as you might with large-scale changes.
Cost-Efficiency: Implementing changes on a smaller scale saves resources like time, money, and personnel. This is especially important in the early stages when the success of an intervention is still uncertain.
Minimizing Risk: Testing changes with smaller samples limits the potential negative impact if the change doesn’t work as intended. This allows for early problem identification and course correction before widespread rollout.
Focused Learning: Small samples enable you to pay closer attention to specific aspects of the change. You can identify what works, what doesn’t, and why in a more granular way. This focused observation allows for deeper learning.
Flexibility: Using small samples and short PDSA cycles allows you to easily adapt your approach as you learn more. You aren’t locked into a large, long-term plan that might be difficult to modify.
Which of the following would help you to plan your action to
deal with missed doses?
A process map
An audit
A PDSA cycle
A research study
A process map
Which of the following would you include in your
stakeholder team to help you tackle missed doses?
Pharmacist
Nurse
Medical doctor
Patient
Pharmacist
Nurse
Medical doctor
Patient
What is a shift in data? run chart?
A shift in the data is a series of seven points or more that has moved across the median. The seven points together shows a stable change
What would you want to know more information about to help you explain the shift?
I want to know what happened in July and continued for the following months that led to this change. Sickness has increased and so it is possible
that a communicable disease such as covid has led to an increase in sickness. it is also possible that the preceding months was very hard on staff
and so we are seeing an increase in mental health issues and exhaustion.
