Table 4.

Selected Results of the Qualitative Analysis of Resident Comments

Themes	Examples of Resident Comments
What Part of the Curriculum Experience Was the Most Useful?
Teamwork	“Ability to see QI on a grand scale and interact with people outside of the immediate residency program.”
Systems-based learning and systems thinking	“Improved patient care involves changes in the system and not mere individuals.” “How to identify issues within our system and create a project to address these issues.” “Learned to identify system inadequacies and create a safe plan to address them through implementing safe alternatives.” “The other stakeholders [and] other clinical staff are as important in-patient care.”
QI principles and knowledge	“Basics behind the QI project, why we do it, how it is different from research.” “A practical education of quality improvement was valuable to me. The QI curriculum taught residents not only the theoretic aspects of QI, but a hands-on education on how one may go about a QI project.”
Mentorship	“Presence of faculty mentors at every meeting to add critical thinking and valuable input at important decision-making points.”
Firsthand experience	“Organizing and completing a project, including IRB approval, etc.” “Running the project and doing hands-on work.”
What Would You Change About the Curriculum? What Challenges Did You Identify While Working on Your QI Project?
Team management	“I feel we have too many projects going on at same time. It gets confusing for the other non-participating staff members to comply to all the changes within the short period of time.”
Curriculum implementation	“Didactic vs time on projects needs to be worked on without increasing the time outside of the QI sessions.” “Getting early feedback regarding the feasibility of projects.” “Working on QI in between sessions due to busy rotations.”
Stakeholder engagement	“More clearly identify and involve the administrative staff/stakeholders that we generally have no communication with/knowledge of. I think their involvement really helped to strengthen some of the projects.”

Abbreviations: QI, quality improvement; IRB, Institutional Review Board.