Multi-method evaluation of a national clinical fellowship programme to build leadership capacity for quality improvement.

Background: This paper reports the results of the evaluation of the Scottish Quality and Safety Fellowship (SQSF)-a 10-month, lead-level international educational programme established in 2008 with the overarching aim of developing clinicians with advanced quality improvement knowledge, technical ability and essential leadership skills. The evaluation explores four levels of educational and practice outcomes associated with (1) the reaction of fellows to SQSF participation, (2) learning gained, (3) subsequent behaviour changes and (4) the overall impact on national and international level capability and capacity building.

Methods: A theory-informed multi-method design was applied using (1) a search and review of the SQSF organisational database to tabulate personal, professional and demographic characteristics; (2) semi-structured telephone interviews with 16 participants using purposive and self-selected sampling; and (3) a cross-sectional online evaluation survey across all 10 cohorts involving 222 fellows RESULTS: SQSF was positively perceived as a high-quality learning experience containing a well-balanced mix of theory and practice, with a majority of respondents reporting career changing benefits.

Qualitative evaluation of the Safety and Improvement in Primary Care (SIPC) pilot collaborative in Scotland: perceptions and experiences of participating care teams.

Objectives: To explore general practitioner (GP) team perceptions and experiences of participating in a large-scale safety and improvement pilot programme to develop and test a range of interventions that were largely new to this setting.

Design: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Data were analysed thematically.

Development and evaluation of a home enteral nutrition team.

The organisation of services to support the increasing number of people receiving enteral tube feeding (ETF) at home varies across regions. There is evidence that multi-disciplinary primary care teams focussed on home enteral nutrition (HEN) can provide cost-effective care. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a HEN Team in one UK city.

An evaluation of police reporting of road casualties.

Background: Under-reporting of road traffic casualties in police records has been well documented.

Objectives: To investigate the extent and nature of possible under-reporting of road traffic casualties in the West of Scotland.

Design: A linked database comprising both police data (STATS19) and hospital in-patient records (SMR01) was created.