PDSA Worksheet –Testing Ideas for Change

Team Name: Ace it! / Date: Monday, September 15 / Cycle #: 1
Objective for this PDSA cycle: / What questions do we want to answer this cycle?
Try a huddle / Is 1100 hrs the right time for a huddle?
Is the nurses’ station is the right place for a huddle?
Will the conversation improve communication and resident care?
Plan / Plan for change or test: (Who, what, when, where)
Try a huddle at the nurses’ station on Monday at 1100 hrs. Invite nursing staff and care aides. The manager will let everyone know.
Plan for collection of data: (Who, what, when, where)
Manager, RCC to take notes and get verbal feedback for the next test.
Predictions: (What do we expect to happen and why?)
Huddles will improve communication amongst staff and improve resident care
Do / Carry out the change or test; Was there any difference from what was planned?
The week prior to the test, the manager communicated the plan with the staff. She also shared the plan in the unit communication book. She also shared some research to show the benefit of the huddle. The test was run at 1100hrs on Monday morning for 20 minutes. The conversation was informal around each resident and their care. Used this format: Issues-Solutions-Sharing of information.
A suggestion was made to have the huddles every morning at 1100 as they were so valuable. Information was shared about the use of antipsychotics and elder care. So some education was added to the mix. Suggestion was made to use a white board to help communicate the huddle information.
Study / Complete analysis of data collected; summarize what was learned
Do the results agree with the predictions? What new questions or issues arose? What are our updated theories?
We learned that 1100 hrs was a good time of the day. We learned that we need a huddle every day to stay on top of really good communication, education and sharing. We learned that we needed to include more disciplines in the huddle. We learned that we needed to take huddle notes and share via a white board on the unit. It’s too early to tell if huddles improves resident care.
Under what conditions could the results be different?
Different days of the week? What about weekends?
Act / What action are we going to take as a result of this cycle (Adopt, Adapt or Abandon)? Are we ready to implement?
Adapt. Make them daily. Try huddles at 1100 hrsfor one week and reassess. Invite OT, PT, Maintenance Management, Dietary, Social Work and Chaplain to each huddle and incorporate their feedback to the next test. Add more structure to the huddle.
Objective of Next Cycle(s): Learn if expanded team at huddles is useful. See how often we should have huddles (is daily too often). What format is best for these huddles?