Innovation and improvements shine at annual welearn poster competition

list generator developed in Visual Basic on Excel using length of Stay to assign patients to respective lists. Data showed the introduction of the automated list generator significantly reduced the time taken to generate lists and improved the attitudes of doctors.

Awarding the grand prize, judges commented, “This poster highlights a well conducted audit and is overall a very good project that is well explained with supporting evidence on improvement.”

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the annual welearn Quality Improvement Poster Contest. This year's contest marked the 5th anniversary of the event and judges were impressed by the incredible entries we received from colleagues across the organisation.

Despite the post-pandemic challenges and ongoing service pressures, colleagues continued to shine, showcasing their unwavering commitment to improving patient care and outcomes. The quality improvement projects that were presented were innovative, creative, and impactful, demonstrating the incredible potential for change that can be achieved through teamwork and dedication.

We received 77 entries across a wide range of categories, covering topics such as patient safety, patient experience, and clinical outcome improvements. The entries were evaluated by a panel of judges, who had the challenging task of selecting the winners from among such a fantastic selection of projects.

After much deliberation, the winner of the staff voted for category – The People’s Choice Award - was Matron Jo Thomas for her poster entitled "Nursing is like a game of CHESS … changing with every move". The poster highlighted a programme of improvement on the elderly care wards which enabled colleagues to highlight vulnerable and acutely unwell patients and move staff to support with the aim of being able to call ‘Checkmate’ when all patients were well looked after and there were no safety concerns.

The judges were impressed by the department’s ability to evidence real change, commenting “This is an excellent programme with transferability; great implementation of an improvement programme that evidences a real change in practice”. Jo won £500.

Highly commended entries were also announced with each winning a £500 prize.

With the first highly commended poster being awarded to Maria Charalambides, Jonathan Dale, Mike Blaber and Anna Lock for their poster entitled “QIP: Improving the identification and management of patients reaching the end of life in General Surgery (NACEL Audit)”. This poster highlighted a programme of quality improvement focussed on embedding the use of the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicator Tool (SPICT), Supportive Care Plans (SCP), documenting preferred place of death and DNACPR and treatment escalation plans.

The second highly commended award was presented to the Learning from Deaths Committee for their poster entitled, “‘SHMI’ing On Up! - Improving Our Summary Hospitallevel Mortality Indicator Score”. This poster highlighted a number of workstreams focussed on improving and decreasing our Trust mortality indices including digital fellows working with clinical coding teams to review mortality coding, introduction of admission proforma at Leasowes and a mortality documentation education programme for junior doctors.

Finally, the overall winner as voted for by the judges and the recipient of the £5000 prize fund was announced as ‘QIP: AMU Patient List Generation. From Junior Scribe to Junior Doctor’ by Zahra Ravat, Amil Sinha, Alistair Jellinek and Nigel Page from the department of acute internal medicine. This poster highlighted the introduction of an automated patient

Chief Governance Officer, Kam Dhami said, “The success of this year's competition is not just limited to the winners. We were delighted to see so many colleagues taking part, submitting their quality improvement projects and sharing their experiences and insights. This competition is an essential platform for engaging both clinical and non-clinical staff in quality improvement efforts, and we believe it is a vital part of our organisation's commitment to innovation and continuous improvement.

“Well done to all of the teams who participated in the competition. Your dedication and commitment to improving patient care is truly inspiring, and we're proud to work alongside such incredible colleagues.

“The welearn Quality Improvement Poster Competition is an opportunity to celebrate the fantastic work that is being done across our organisation, but it's also an opportunity to learn from one another and share best practices. By coming together and sharing our experiences, we can create a culture of innovation and continuous improvement that benefits our patients, our people, and the wider population.”

All entries remain on display at the Education Centres at Sandwell Hospital and the Post Graduate Centre at City Hospital, and on Connect.