What is Improvement Fundamentals in a Day (IFIAD)? 
Improvement Fundamentals in a Day was developed by NHS England and is designed to provide all the tools and resources you need to run a local improvement workshop to learn new techniques and produce the initial plans and documents to support a new improvement project.
It provides step-by-step guidance, templates and facilitator videos on each of the techniques. The sessions will be facilitated by the Improvement Academy and will be offered virtually or face-to-face (when possible). You will also be provided with templates and support to work through them by the facilitators.
What does the day look like?
The course covers the essential quality improvement tools that you will need to be able to implement and sustain your improvement idea.
The topics that are introduced during the course are:
- Problem statements and aims
- Measuring for improvement
- Fishbone diagram
- Finding and selecting change ideas
- Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles
- Spreading improvement
- Networking
The sessions will consist of a maximum of three teams, with four to 10 participants in each team; this is to ensure each team has the time to work through the examples with a facilitator in breakout rooms.
You will be provided with a handout before the virtual training session, which has copies of the templates and tools we will use in the sessions. Once these have been completed, they will be shared with the NHS England QSIR faculty.
Who can join the course?
Any members of staff working at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust or Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board are welcome to attend our courses, with permission from their manager.
To attend a course, you must be supported by your manager to participate in all elements of the course, a commitment to complete the course, and have an idea of a problem or frustration that you would like to improve.
Training Dates
We can offer the IFIAD training on any date and at any location of your choice, to suit you and your team. Whilst we normally run the course from 9.30am until 4.30pm, we can be flexible with the timing to suit your team’s needs.
If you are interested in the Improvement Academy facilitating this training for you and your team, please contact us via [email protected].
Participant Testimonials
“As a team I feel we are completely able to move this forward and also to apply the process to other areas in our working area.”
Staff Nurse, ULHT
“It was a great session, the facilitator was really clear and managed the groups well over the Teams session. We have requested a further session to just help us with bits that as a team we feel we need further guidance with and the facilitator is very happy to arrange this with us.”
Ward Clerk, ULHT
“The structure made it simple, helped me frame an aim much easier moving forward and helped me understand measures. You kept the language simple and provided support throughout – really great session!”
Head of Nursing, LCHS
“I feel like I got a great deal of value from the session, which has equipped me with tools to use in various different aspects of my role. The fishbone analysis as a tool will, in particular, be a great exercise I can envisage being really useful, along with the fresh eyes exercise (which is also a great way of thinking outside the box).”
Administration Assistant, ULHT
“Absolutely fantastic day, great to work through this with like-minded colleagues. The facilitation was great to keep us on track/ I’ve done QI courses before, but learnt lots today and feel really excited!”
Patient Safety Lead Midwife, ULHT
“I thought the course was very informative and moved at a good pace. There was enough information without it being overwhelming. The aspect most useful to me was looking at things with fresh eyes to identify areas for change.”
Quality Support Officer, LCHS
“A “can do” approach to solving what can at times seem overwhelming hurdles to change.”
Research Nurse, ULHT
“It all has been very informative and helpful, the session was really engaging and the time flew by, we could have carried on talking for hours.”
Deputy Sister, Oncology, ULHT
“An informative and interactive day with a positive learning experience. As a result of the session I will utilise tools in practice and support others to adopt the tools in practice to develop their thinking”.
Performance Lead, LCHS
“The ability to make the tools useful for something that occurs in my area of work, being able to focus it onto what we needed it for.”
Research Nurse, ULHT
“The fishbone session was very useful for throwing up ideas we hadn’t necessarily thought of, and then narrowing them down to our priorities. We are now able to put a plan in place to implement our improvement project.”
Pharmacy Technician, Clinical Trials, ULHT