What is one stage in the healthcare quality improvement cycle?

The Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle is a widely recognized framework in healthcare quality improvement. This structured methodology enables organizations to implement changes systematically and assess their impact effectively.

In the PDSA cycle, each phase serves a specific purpose:

• Plan involves identifying an opportunity for improvement, setting objectives, and defining how success will be measured.

• Do is the phase where the plan is put into action on a small scale to test its effectiveness.

• Study entails analyzing the results of the test against the expected outcomes to determine what was successful and what areas need further adjustments.

• Act involves reflecting on the insights gained from the test and deciding whether to implement the change on a larger scale, to refine the approach, or to discard it if it did not work effectively.

This structured approach fosters a culture of continuous improvement within healthcare settings, making it a fundamental stage in the quality improvement cycle.

The other choices, while relevant to quality improvement in healthcare, do not encapsulate a complete cycle or framework in the same organized manner as PDSA does. Assessing and implementing are important steps, and training is essential for ensuring that staff understands new processes or techniques, but they do