First-year doctors’ attitudes and beliefs relating to quality improvement and patient safety

Abstract

In the current environment of culture change and financial pressure on the National Health Service, quality improvement initiatives are heralded as new vehicles for workplace evolution. Foundation Year One doctors encounter many of the problems impinging on quality, and their enthusiasm and number make them an indispensable resource and critical mass for improvement. In response to the increasing importance of quality improvement training, and as part of an ongoing project to embed quality improvement education in the Severn Deanery region, this paper describes the evolution of a questionnaire tool to assess the attitudes and beliefs of a cohort of new Foundation Year One doctors. An electronic survey was developed and validated to address each aim of quality care. The survey was sent by email to every Foundation Year One doctor in the Severn Deanery. New Foundation Year One doctors’ attitudes are overwhelmingly positive towards quality improvement and patient safety; however, universally, they do not feel valued and listened to. In addition, they do not feel that their previous medical education has fully equipped them to improve the quality and safety of the care they deliver to their patients. Foundation Year One doctors represent a large, intelligent and enthusiastic workforce and in an environment where quality is now accepted as paramount, harnessing their potential through better quality improvement training could prove advantageous to all National Health Service stakeholders.