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October 9, 2013
The IHI Open School is an innovative learning community where you can take free online courses, earn certificates, network with peers and experts, and gain confidence and skills in quality improvement and patient safety to change health care.
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Students and Residents, Present a Storyboard at the National Forum

forumstoryboardStoryboards are an integral part of the National Forum, providing an opportunity for students and residents to share their improvement projects and celebrate their Chapter successes with other Forum attendees.

Submit your storyboard proposal by Thursday, October 10, 5pm EST to receive formal recognition in the National Forum On-Site Guide, which is handed out to over 6,000 health professionals attending the National Forum. Click here for more information about storyboards, including templates and examples to help guide you. Please note, we will be accepting student storyboard proposals until Friday, November 15; however those submitted after October 10 will not be included in the On-Site Guide.


Last chance: The deadline to apply for the David Calkins Memorial Scholarship is tomorrow, Thursday, October 10. Full-time students are eligible to apply for the scholarship, which covers the cost of general conference fees as well as up to $1,000 in travel, lodging, and expenditures. Click here to learn more about the submission guidelines and requirements.


What We’re Reading: “Why Hospitals Want Patients to Ask Doctors, ‘Have You Washed Your Hands?’”

In a week of health news (not to mention other types of news) punctuated by uncertainty and dissent, hand washing seems to be a relatively safe topic for discussion. After all, hand washing is widely regarded as one of the most important, simplest things a health care worker can do to protect patients from infection. As safe a topic as we find it for our weekly newsletter, however, a couple of recent studies show it makes patients surprisingly nervous. For example, in one survey, two-thirds of patients who observed doctors failing to wash their hands did not speak up.

To learn more about the benefits of asking “Have you washed your hands?” and a look at how different organizations are encouraging this question, check out this new article from The Wall Street Journal.


Upcoming WIHI on New Staffing Models for Primary Care

What does it take to be a high-functioning primary care practice today in the US? Join us for the next WIHI on Thursday, October 10 at 2pm EST to look at the success factors that LEAP (Learning from Effective Ambulatory Practices) has identified thus far based on a study of 30 sites of all shapes and sizes.


Community Updates


First State-Wide Interprofessional Education Summit Welcomes South Dakota Chapter Leaders

Four IHI Open School Chapter Leaders from South Dakota recently had the honor of attending the first ever state-wide conference focused on interprofessional education. According to Chapter President Rebekka K. Sneed, “We were asked to attend not only as IHI leaders, but as current South Dakota students.” In Sneed’s blog post, she shares how her group was able to lend both of these important perspectives — student and “IHIer” — to the day’s conversation, which focused on successes and challenges in implementing interprofessional opportunities into South Dakota’s health systems and health science curricula.

“There are countless people across the state who realize the importance of team-based learning for health care professionals,” says Sneed. “As they are working towards implementing these ideas into curricula and professional education opportunities, we are excited as IHI student leaders to help bring these goals to fruition.” Read Sneed’s full blog post here, and share your own contributions to today’s conversations around health care improvement.

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