The Texas Department of State Health Services recently built their internal capacity to teach quality improvement (QI) tools and techniques. Through a Train-the-Trainer (TTT) series facilitated by the Public Health Foundation (PHF), a small group of public health department employees participated in two training sessions. In the first training session, the small group was taught QI, wrote
AIM statements for individual improvement projects, learned the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, and launched individual QI projects.
After working on QI projects for about a month, the small group of employees participated in a second training session to discuss the successes and challenges they faced when working on the projects. From the successes and challenges discussion, the small group learned how to teach QI tools and techniques. As a result of the sessions, the small group has embraced QI and they are ready to teach others. Additionally, the department is planning to offer another TTT series.
The TTT series offers tremendous workforce development benefits to an organization. By investing in a small group of employees, the organization builds internal capacity to offer ongoing QI training and creates a robust quality culture over time. This series exemplifies the Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.” With internal personnel trained to teach QI, health departments are well equipped to build and sustain a culture of quality.
To learn more about the Train-the-Trainer series and other on-site technical assistance from PHF, please review the
Learning Series Catalog.