Over the course of a few weeks, nearly a dozen teams of residents demonstrated their commitment to quality improvement and patient safety. Teams of four or five residents spend a portion of each month throughout their training animated by questions ranging from how to increase screenings for respiratory virus or measuring iron levels to finding efficiencies when rounding with the Medicine-Psychiatry in-patients.

The national accrediting body for residency programs requires that residents participate in a quality improvement project. Depending on the institution, this can often be treated like checking a box. At Iowa, though, program leadership wants to provide residents with a more fulfilling experience, one that stresses learning by doing and recognizes the importance of working closely with other healthcare professionals on our patient care teams.

The results of this work, beyond the betterment of patient health or system efficiency, can often result in participating residents’ presenting their findings on regional and national platforms. Whether they are at a meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine or the American College of Cardiology, the researchers can use their tested work as early evidence of their skills as scholars.

But first, these works-in-progress presentations themselves offer the project groups the chance to show, defend, and refine their work in a safe and supportive environment. Their peers and faculty mentors have the opportunity to ask questions, gain better understanding, and help the presenters anticipate future hurdles or generate new ideas for their projects.

Carly Kuehn, MD, is the residency program’s educational director for quality and safety. She said she was “impressed” with this year’s set of presentations and how the teams divide up the work as well as the demonstration of what they have learned. She also appreciates how the questions each team pursues comes out of their daily practice. “Every good project seems to start with curiosity, which is an important lesson for any future clinical research.”