An Improvement Process for Clinical Units
Relating Across Difference - An Improvement Process for Clinical Units is a workshop series that uses principles of relational coordination to help healthcare teams leverage the rich information offered by their diversity to achieve better outcomes. It is structured as a coach-the-coach model in which workshop participants are process improvement coaches or organizational development coaches. Workshop participants learn how to coach healthcare teams to do process improvement while building relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect across professional and social identity differences. Four workshops are offered over a six month time horizon, with project work carried out in between each workshop by workshop participants and the teams they are coaching.
The workshop series is led by Wale Olaleye, PhD, MA, MBA, BPharm, Anthony Suchman, MD, MA, and Jody Hoffer Gittell, PhD. The curriculum is currently being developed and tested in partnership with three health systems including Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University, Mass General Brigham, and the University of Washington Medical Center, with funding from the Josiah Macy Foundation.
RAD is a workshop series that
- Works with PI teams using a coach-the-coach model to help them build relationships across difference as part of their quality improvement work
- Develops relationships based on shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect across both professional differences (e.g., nurse, doctor, medical assistant, pharmacist, patient care assistant, administrator) and personal differences (e.g., race, gender, class, political views, immigration status, age) thereby reinforcing interprofessional practice training and diversity, equity and inclusion training
- Uses relational coordination as a validated model for coordinating interdependent work
- Is being developed and tested in partnership with Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University, Massachusetts General Brigham, and the University of Washington Medical Center
- Is based at Brandeis University's Institute on Healthcare Systems, supported by the Josiah Macy Foundation, the Consortium for Curriculum Development, and the Relational Coordination Collaborative.
Expected results
We expect that participants in these clinical units will experience higher levels of comfort with professional and personal differences following the improvement process compared to before. As a result, participants will experience higher levels of relational coordination, psychological safety, job satisfaction, work engagement, reduced burnout and increased intent to stay. We expect that participants in these clinical units will be more successful in achieving their patient care goals than they were prior to participation.