Singleton NICU

QI ‘Amnesty’ and Pitch Session

Thursday 26th May 2022

We need YOU…..
We are delighted to invite everybody to a whole department Quality Improvement
afternoon. This interactive session will to aimed at pulling together all the wonderful QI
work taking place across the department. As well as showcasing the various projects and
making these more visible to the wider team, it will be an opportunity to collectively look at
where we feel current priorities are as a service.

Why do you need me?

We would like to move to a more coordinated approach to how we undertake QI work
across our service so it is happening less in silo’s. This is important as it will allow resources
(most importantly your time and energy!) to be directed to projects that can be most useful
for our patients, families and the team.
To move towards with this we need to bring together all the existing projects so we can
understand where each one is at in terms of progress and help make a plan for moving
forward/completion. Importantly, there will be the opportunity to seek expert advice and
pitch new ideas to our…

Wonderful Expert QI Panel

Whether its picking the panels brains on the best measure to use or getting a wider team
opinion on which PDSA’s you should concentrate on first, have a think about any burning
questions you may have!
The pitches will be a great chance to put new ideas forward, agree as a team on what to
take forward and if needed pull a team of interested individuals together. If the project
pitched is not felt to be a current priority then this is not wasted work! We will be building-
up an excellent pool of project ideas which can evolve and which we can work our way
through over time. For trainees who need to engage regularly with QI work this is a great
way to put QI methodology into practice and really define the problem.

What do I need to do?

To ensure this is an event for everybody we would like as many of the team as possible to
present/make a pitch. Whatever stage your QI project/idea is at we would like you to:

1. Prepare a 1 page overview and submit by 19th May to Lucinda.perkins@wales.nhs.uk

on one of the dedicated proforma’s

- Where are we now? (Existing Projects)

- Why is this important? (New Project Pitch)

2. Present a summary in a 5-minute slot on the day.

These time slots will be short and sweet, with 5 additional minutes for discussion, but feel
free to make it interesting ‘Dragon’s Den’ (ffau'r ddraig) style! I promise none of our expert
panel are actual dragon’s and nor will they breath fire on the day.

The aim is very much to support and take a constructive look at all the work underway. This
means we can ensure the ultimate resources (peoples time and energy) are being used well.
If you can’t attend you can pre-record this and send it to me. Please still contribute 1 page
summary in advance even if you are pre-recording. Please let me know of your title asap so I
can add it to the programme for the day. I know I have cornered many of the trainees but I
haven’t seen everyone so please let me know!
If you have a specific question for the team to consider please let us know in advance with
your 1 page summary. If you have data relevant to the question please also send this as our
panel love data and then we can make sure we prepare and get the most out of the session
on the day.

Is this a one-off session?

No, This is the start of something beautiful!

Our plan going forward is to make QI work much more visible to the whole team by having
regular departmental QI sessions where there will be opportunity to brainstorm together,
present updates and to seek advice/opinions on projects. Our team have real strength in
quality improvement and constantly improving care for our babies. We all incorporate this
into our practice every day and should be very proud of the fantastic ethos within our team.
We have learnt from past projects that the key to success is the whole team buying in to the
value of a project for our babies and this is why we feel it is everybody’s business to know
what QI activity is ongoing and be actively involved in planning what we do next!
Our provisional broad priorities for QI going forward cover 4 key areas:

1. Prematurity including perinatal optimiation & BPD

2. Family Engagement and Family integrated care
3. Education stream including POC USS teaching and Simulation
4. Innovation Stream

We will aim to have 2-3 projects from each stream going on at any one time to make
projects manageable and so the whole team is aware of expectations and goals of active
projects. This is all flexible and we need to know what is already going on before we
streamline. As you can see the innovation stream means that nothing is off limits. All
projects ‘pitched’ will be logged so we can come back to these in each stream when other
projects close. All our work is ultimately intertwined and often several projects overlap and
may work much more effectively as a coordinated team. Trainees will also be able to see
more clearly where they can get involved as they rotate through the unit.