Quality culture in action for a respiratory course: A dynamic CQI process at an engineering based allopathic medical school

Abstract

Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CIMED) opened its doors in 2018 as an allopathic medical school under provisional accreditation by the Liaison Committee of Medical Education (LCME) and in 2014, the LCME mandated that all U.S. medical schools implement the process of internal continuous quality improvement (CQI). Here, the authors take a retrospective look at how CIMED utilized frequent and granular student feedback to contribute to continuous quality improvement (CQI) during the school’s Respiratory course, by citing specific examples of changes and student satisfaction outcomes from the inaugural class (2018) to the second class (2019). The authors outline how this cycle of evaluation and action can effectively incorporate students into the CQI process to enhance student success via faculty-student partnership. Furthermore, the authors discuss the nuance of feedback interpretation by the involved faculty and advocate for CQI based on a deeper understanding of the student experience such that change initiated by CQI may extend beyond benchmark data collection. The authors discuss how dynamic feedback may be helpful in achieving equipoise between long-standing principles of medical pedagogy and newer trends in medical education, while still maintaining student satisfaction and continuing to develop a culture of quality improvement.