Patient safety and quality of care are optimized in settings that foster a culture of practice enhancement. Recognizing this, BC health authorities are aligning on a provincial program of feedback and professional development support for
medical staff members.
Practice enhancement encompasses the activities that help medical staff members to assess, reflect on, and enhance their practice—such as quality improvement processes, performance reviews, and continuing education.
The program model
In time, the goal is to provide all medical staff members with
facilitated feedback using evidence-informed practice reviews, so that they may create professional development plans and connect with coaching or education resources to enhance their practice. Introduction of the program will be phased and iterative, building up toward a regular cycle of in-depth review, reflection and enhancement.
How will medical staff members participate in practice enhancement?
Peer facilitators and practice enhancement
Along the journey,
medical staff practitioners will gather feedback from multiple sources and reflect on that feedback in discussion with a trained
peer facilitator. The peer facilitator guides the practitioner through three key activities:
- Review and interpretation of the review inputs, such as the
360 report
- Development of a plan to act upon results
- Follow-up 60–90 days after the plan development
The provincial collaboration on practice enhancement benefits from many inputs.
To date, committee work has drawn deeply on health authority medical leaders, as well as advice from the regulatory colleges, professional associations, and medical quality and education bodies. The BC Medical Quality Initiative (BC MQI) provides project facilitation and support.
Consultations with subject-matter experts are also underway, including:
- Panels of practitioners to assess context and content-specific approaches to initiate MSPE in their area of practice
- Feedback opportunities for front line
medical staff on the practice enhancement program model
- Forums for patient participation in ongoing design and evaluation
Why a provincial collaboration?
By working together, we can create a harmonized program that offers benefits to all stakeholders across the health authority system of care.
