Designing for Sustainment: Keeping Improvement Work on Track (Patient Safety IV) (Coursera)

Designing for Sustainment: Keeping Improvement Work on Track (Patient Safety IV) (Coursera)

Keeping patient safety and quality improvement projects on track, on time, and on budget is critical to ensuring their success. In this course, students will be introduced and given the opportunity to apply a series of tools to guide and manage patient safety and quality initiatives. These include tools for defining what success looks like, developing a change management plan, and conducting a pre-mortem to identify risks for project failure. This course will also provide tools for engaging stakeholders to ensure key players are invested in your project’s success.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

What You Will Learn

  • Recognize the importance of planning for project sustainment.
  • Use the pre-mortem exercise to identify risks of project failure.
  • Design a change management plan that addresses technical and adaptive challenges.
  • Describe the 4E’s + 2 Model and its use to engage stakeholders.

Course 4 of 7 in the Patient Safety Specialization

Syllabus

WEEK 1
What Does Success Look Like?
In this module, learners will develop an understanding of what project sustainment is and why it is important, the potential risks to project sustainment, the importance of planning for sustainment from project inception, types of measures used in quality improvement projects and the attributes of each, how strategies for improvement were developed in two successful large-scale quality improvement initiatives. Learners will become familiar with the issues impacting sustainment and how they may be successfully addressed across the life span of a quality improvement project.

WEEK 2
Conducting a Premortem
In this module, learners will develop an understanding of what the Pre-Mortem exercise is and how it can be used to: improve project planning, surface threats to project success and sustainment, develop interventions to mitigate risk of project failure, create an action plan to maximize the application of Pre-Mortem results, and maintain awareness of threats to project success across the project lifespan. Learners will also develop familiarity with facilitation best-practices. The Pre-Mortem Exercise can be a powerful tool to identify and mitigate risks for project failure.

WEEK 3
Change Management 101
In this module, learners will develop an understanding of: what is meant by change management, reasons for change initiative failure, change as a process, frameworks and processes for change, the differences between technical and adaptive work and the role of each in a change effort, leadership skills necessary for addressing adaptive change, identifying and engaging change effort stakeholders, managing conflict, developing a communication strategy for a change effort, applying a systems approach to change efforts.

WEEK 4
Planning for Engagement Using the 4 E's + 2 Model
In this module, learners will develop an understanding of: the role of engagement in sustainability and spread, addressing barriers to engagement, potential areas of failure in sustaining change effort gains, the 2 E's of embedding and enduring and their role in sustainment, frameworks for sustaining change efforts, a real-world example of successful sustainment of a quality improvement initiative.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Everyday Chinese Medicine 2 (Coursera) Coursera
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Everyday Chinese Medicine 2 (Coursera)

This course, Everyday Chinese Medicine II offered by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, aims to show to the public, as well as the healthcare professionals about the basic principles of Chinese medicine. Our primary goal is to empower healthcare choices by promoting awareness and practical application on Chinese medicine diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and to facilitate interprofessional education between Chinese and conventional clinicians.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Lymphoedema: Monitoring & Intervention After Breast Cancer (Coursera) Coursera
Macquarie University

Lymphoedema: Monitoring & Intervention After Breast Cancer (Coursera)

Lymphoedema following breast cancer treatment is a poorly understood and under-researched condition which can significantly impact physical and psychological function, reduce quality of life and result in substantial cost burdens to both patients and the healthcare system. In these interactive modules we will cover an introduction to lymphoedema, lymphatic physiology and anatomy, assessment and treatment, as well as utilise case studies to understand the prospective surveillance and early intervention model of care in breast cancer rehabilitation.

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks
The Oral Cavity: Portal to Health and Disease (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

The Oral Cavity: Portal to Health and Disease (Coursera)

This course will focus on the interprofessional realtionship of dentistry and medicine. For each session, the medical specialist will present a broad overview of specific disease entity which will be followed by a dental educator discussing the relevant oral manifestations and implications. The final module of each session will be devoted to the interaction between the dental and other health care professionals.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Acute and Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Comprehensive Review (Coursera) Coursera
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Acute and Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Comprehensive Review (Coursera)

This course is designed to inform primary care physicians and general otolaryngologists about the differences between acute and chronic rhinosinusitis and how to distinguish and treat them. It is also applicable to individuals who wish to broaden their knowledge and vernacular about this disease process, especially those who may suffer from this condition.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Psychological First Aid (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Psychological First Aid (Coursera)

Learn to provide psychological first aid to people in an emergency by employing the RAPID model: Reflective listening, Assessment of needs, Prioritization, Intervention, and Disposition. Utilizing the RAPID model (Reflective listening, Assessment of needs, Prioritization, Intervention, and Disposition), this specialized course provides perspectives on injuries and trauma that are beyond those physical in nature. The RAPID model is readily applicable to public health settings, the workplace, the military, faith-based organizations, mass disaster venues, and even the demands of more commonplace critical events, e.g., dealing with the psychological aftermath of accidents, robberies, suicide, homicide, or community violence.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Hacking Exercise For Health. The surprising new science of fitness. (Coursera) Coursera
McMaster University

Hacking Exercise For Health. The surprising new science of fitness. (Coursera)

Renowned exercise physiologists Martin Gibala and Stuart Phillips of McMaster University teach the surprising new science of cardio fitness and strength-building—and then provide you with hacks to get fit and strong (and healthy!) in less time than you ever thought possible. What’s the right mix of exercise between cardio and strength? How do you know if you’re working out hard enough? What’s better, heavy or light weights? These questions and more are addressed through a course designed to provide even the most inexperienced of exercisers the tools you need to design time-efficient workouts that can be done virtually anywhere, from your own home to a city park or even at your workplace.

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Using clinical health data for better healthcare (Coursera) Coursera
The University of Sydney

Using clinical health data for better healthcare (Coursera)

Digital health is rapidly being realised as the future of healthcare. While this is placing emphasis on the input of quality health data in digital records and systems, the delivery of safe and quality healthcare relies not only on the input of data, but also the ability to access and derive meaning from data to generate evidence, inform decision making and drive better health outcomes.

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Foundational Skills for Communicating About Health (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Foundational Skills for Communicating About Health (Coursera)

Effective communication is a core skill that nearly every health professional will need and use during their careers. Yet, few health professionals receive even basic training in how to design communications to be clear and successful. As “foundational skills,” the content in this course can be applied to both oral and written communication, within and beyond health.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Violence Against Healthcare (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

Violence Against Healthcare (Coursera)

At the global level, there are many countries marked by violence affecting health care. The 'Health care in danger' project aims to establish practical measures and recommendations that can be implemented on the ground by policy-makers, humanitarian organizations and health professionals. In view of the multiplicity of actors and latitudes concerned, it is essential to be able to make available the tools needed to make informed decisions, guide behaviour in high-risk areas and provide everyone the means to create and optimize the dialogue between humanitarian professionals and health on the one hand and relevant authorities or other armed actors.

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Essentials of Global Health (Coursera) Coursera
Yale University

Essentials of Global Health (Coursera)

Essentials of Global Health is a comprehensive introduction to global health. It is meant to introduce you to this topic in well-structured, clear and easy to understand ways. Much of the course will focus on five questions: What do people get sick, disabled and die from; Why do they suffer from these conditions? Which people are most affected? Why should we care about such concerns? What can be done to address key health issues, hopefully at least cost, as fast as possible, and in sustainable ways?

Aug 10th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19 (Coursera) Coursera
University of Toronto

Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19 (Coursera)

Never in the history of humanity have so many people been feeling intense anxiety related to COVID-19 and the world it will leave in its wake. The intent of this course is to give you a deeper understanding of the anxiety reaction as it relates to various aspects of our current life, ranging from our consumption of news to the way we talk to our children about this. I will also give you clear strategies for managing and, in fact, turning off the anxiety response at least for short periods.

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks