PDSA Cycles: A scientific and pragmatic approach to improvement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
PDSA Cycle conduct in healthcare: Achieving a scientific and pragmatic approach to improvement
IRAS ID
122004
Contact name
Julie Reed
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Joint Research Compliance Office
Research summary
The need to understand how to effectively improve patient care is vital. To improve care changes to the way in which it is delivered must be made. Due to the complexity of healthcare it necessary for changes to be tested and adapted to ensure they are having the desired impact of improving care.\nPlan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles are a 4-stage method used to structure the testing change. The “Plan” refers to planning change aimed at improving an area of care, “do” refers to completing the plan, “study” refers to reflecting on the outcome following the test of change and “act” refers to potential adaptations to the change in light of the outcomes. These adaptations are taken forward and subsequent PDSA cycles are conducted. \nWhilst PDSA is a popular improvement method the evidence for it’s effectiveness in improving care is mixed. A potential reason for this is the variation in the way the method is conducted, often not in-line with the best-practice guidance of the method. \nThis research seeks to explore the variety of ways in which the four-stage structure is conducted by improvement teams in healthcare. The different organisational contexts in which the method is used will be evaluated with the aim of identifying and understanding reasons for variation in use.\nDocumented PDSA cycles will be evaluated to determine quality of conduct and learning/ improvement achieved. Further to this, team’s will be interviewed and observed to identify features of the method’s use not apparent in documentation, to capture their perceptions of the method, the context in which it is used and success of use.\nOutputs from this work will help understand how to effectively improve care using PDSA cycles and develop to support teams using the method.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/WM/0436
Date of REC Opinion
17 Oct 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion