What is the AHA-NPSF Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship?
The nationally renowned AHA-NPSF Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship was redesigned in 2011 using the 2009 paper Transforming Healthcare: A Safety Imperative from the Lucien Leape Institute of the National Patient Safety Foundation and its focus on a transformational model for patient safety improvement.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) have adapted the components of this transformational model to create an enhanced fellowship curriculum framework (see figure).
This new approach extends the program's traditional focus on core patient safety knowledge to embrace new topics emerging from health care delivery system transformation. It combines all the components of the NPSF Transformational Model and assures that the learning is actionable through the Action Learning Project (ALP). The ALP, a patient safety improvement project, completed by each Fellow (or Fellowship team), is grounded in reliability methodology that focuses on the foundational elements and incorporates them into:
- Care coordination
- Patient centeredness
- Organizational culture and
- Transparency and learning organization
This rigorous approach ensures fellows can translate the information learned into action within their organizations. Altogether, this new curriculum better prepares health care leaders to guide patient safety improvement initiatives and drive transformational change within their organizations.
Fellows are exposed to the thinking and practice of nationally renowned experts as well as a broad array of tools, strategies, and methodologies through a highly participatory, and structured learning community.
Program Elements
The Fellowship offers a variety of learning experiences, interaction with current fellows and alumni, and exposure to nationally recognized experts. While continuing their professional responsibilities, Fellows are actively engaged in the following activities:
- Action Learning Project (ALP) - Design and complete an Action Learning Project, a major patient safety or quality improvement project for their organization. Fellows are provided a Mentor, a national patient safety expert, to guide and help advance the progress of their ALP during the year.
- Learning Retreats - Four learning retreats lasting two to three days each are included in the PSLF curriculum. At each retreat, Fellows participate in workshops on various topics led by national expert faculty. The first retreat of the Fellowship year is held in conjunction with the Health Forum/AHA Leadership Summit in July with Fellows attending the Summit as part of their learning retreat. The fourth (and final) retreat is held at the NPSF Patient Safety Congress in May with Fellows attending that conference as well
- Webinars/Teleconferences - Fellows participate in three 90-minute webinars/teleconferences through the course of the year, with each call focusing on a different patient safety or quality improvement topic
- Virtual Learning Community - Year-round communication, resource-sharing, and interaction among Fellows and faculty is facilitated through a robust, web-based portal.
Program Value:
The AHA-NPSF Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship is specifically designed toproduce significant returns for both Fellows and their sponsoring organizations. For Fellows, they gain the skills, knowledge, and leadership capabilities to:
- Develop, lead and champion patient safety improvement projects as part of larger delivery system transformation efforts
- Build allies and partners and bridge organizational silos
- Develop an organization-wide commitment to safety
- Measure progress and impact of improvements and interventions
In short, Fellows are prepared to be patient safety leaders and change agents. And for the organization, because each Fellow completes a major improvement project during the program, its return on investment is immediate. But more importantly, it also gains:
- Greater organizational awareness of how to build safety cultures with tools for physicians, staff, board, and senior leaders
- Staff capable of facilitating, teaching, and sustaining organizational change to improve patient safety
- Savings in time and money, faster project implementation, more effective results, and
- Less reliance on external consultants
Sponsors:
- American Hospital Association (AHA)
- National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)
Partners:
- Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET)
- Health Forum
- American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM)
- American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE)
- Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)
For more information contact Shawn Foster at (312) 422-2933.
