Learning to Improve Improved Learning

This thesis focuses on the connection between learning and quality improvement in health care. I explored this from the macro, meso and micro level perspectives. The central research question of this thesis is:

Which issues support and hinder the development of healthcare professionals working in hospitals in their quality improvement work?

To investigate how healthcare professionals can be supported in their quality improvement work, I employed a case study methodology. I studied three different cases over the course of five years. The first case was the national Dutch Faster Better programme. The second case was a number of different improvement projects in an academic hospital. For the third case I was intensively involved for a period of 18 months in a Dutch teaching hospital. In all three cases I used different methods for data collection and data analysis, varying from quantitative analyses of questionnaires to action research. By combining different research methods I gained more insight into the complexity associated with healthcare professionals’ learning to conduct improvement work.