Quality Improvement Awards

Next event - 5th July 2023

GTG West Midlands, Bearing Drive, Wolverhampton, WV11 3SZ

The NHS is facing significant financial and operational pressures, with services struggling to maintain standards of care. Hence, now more than ever, local and national NHS leaders need to focus on improving quality and delivering better-value care.

All NHS organisations should be focused on continually improving quality of care for people using their services. This includes improving the safety, effectiveness and experience of care. (From Kings Fund publication “Making the case for Quality Improvement”)

The Quality Improvement (QI) Awards are an opportunity for all staff at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust to recognise and celebrate their successes in improvement including QI projects, audits, service evaluations, simulation and medical education.

The awards align with our joint strategy where we are striving to embed a culture of learning and continuous improvement at all levels of the organisations, supporting, recognising and celebrating our colleagues who are embracing quality improvement in all that they do.

Submitting a poster as an individual or team for a Quality Improvement Award is a great way to have your hard work and achievements recognised.

The QI Awards will be held on 5th July 2023 from 12 noon to 5pm at the GTG West Midlands, Bearing Drive, Willenhall, Wolverhampton, WV11 3SZ. This will be a Joint event between Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust.

The Inaugural QI Awards 2019 event was held in July 2019 in Walsall Manor Hospital’s Manor Learning and Conference Centre, followed again in July 2021.

Poster Instructions :

Please read the following instructions before submitting your poster:

  • Please only use templates provided below to design your poster. There is a blank template and 3 other suggestions for designs.
  • The earlier submissions are made the better. The QI Team will support the authors with improving the design and content of their poster.
  • This can be emailed to wht.qiteam@nhs.net or rwh-tr.cqi@nhs.net when complete.
  • Deadline for submission of posters and nominations is Sunday 21st May 2023 at 23:59
  • Please email the QI teams at above email address if you need help to design your poster. A member of the team will contact you as soon as possible with suggestions for your poster.
  • Please see previous posters submitted to QI Awards for inspiration.
  • ALL submitted posters will be displayed on a website for staff and judges to vote for the winners, during June 2023. They may also be displayed in the MLCC and public areas around the hospital.
  •  Some of the top projects will be invited to present their project orally for the main event.

Nominations :

Nominating an individual or team for a Quality Improvement Award is a great way to recognise their achievements and passion for QI. 
We are inviting nominations for three QI Award categories: 

  1. Leadership and QI Culture Award
    An individual who has shown exceptional leadership in their QI leadership role and inspires their team members through their actions. They have developed and/or supported a learning culture which shows how an individual has engaged and supported staff to contribute to QI, for example: developing a shared vision, communicating with stakeholders, encouraging reflection and learning and giving staff the support they need to identify and implement ideas for improvement.
  2. QI Champion Award
    An individual who lives, breathes and optimises working in a Quality Improvement way in everything they do. They have used and championed QI methodologies and tools such as: the Model for Improvement; how to use data to demonstrate improvements, Plan, Study, Do, Act cycles.
  3. QI Team/Department of the Year
    Recognises a team or department who have embraced QI tools and techniques as the way they make changes within their department. They have sought to ensure their own colleagues have accessed QI training and try to spread their knowledge to others within their organisation.

Nominees will be assessed on their passion for Quality Improvement, and for encouraging and championing the use of recognised Quality Improvement approaches to identify improvement opportunities, test ideas and monitor changes. 

To nominate an individual, team or department for a QI Award please complete the online form: https://forms.office.com/e/qR9BgD723H  

Further details and FAQ – please click here to download.

Nominations close on 21 May 2023 

Terms & Conditions :-

  1. Posters will be accepted till 21st May 2023 23:59.
  2. Please submit your posters by the deadline, else they will be rejected.
  3. Projects associated with either Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust or Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust will be accepted. (GP and mental health projects also included).
  4. Any projects done after Jan 2021 will be accepted for these awards.
  5. Presenting author should have made a significant contribution to the project.
  6. The posters will be displayed on the website or in a QI registry for future reference and teaching.
  7. The QI Awards team will print the posters FREE of charge.
  8. By submitting their poster to the Awards event, the authors give us their consent for the poster to be used for reference purposes and public display if considered suitable, and teaching by both the Trust’s QI Team.
  9. Projects should include Quality Improvement following an audit, survey or service review. Improvement interventions can include simulation and education. A structured plan of changes following an audit would be acceptable, even if no improvement was demonstrated.

You can view the poster scoring criteria here.

There will be a shortlisting of all submitted posters and authors will be informed by mid June 2023 whether their projects have been accepted for oral presentation.

Producing your poster

  1. Please use the templates provided here to design your poster.
  2. Safari may change the extension to .pps – Rename file extension to .pptx and open with Powerpoint.
  3. You can choose any of the template designs. Please DO NOT change the master background or size.
  4. The size of your poster must be A1 PORTRAIT (594 x 841 mm) and should include the logos in the template provided.
  5. You may wish to include the following delineated sections:
    • A title (should reflect main subject or message of project).
    • Background: explaining why you did this project.
    • Aims: In one sentence, explain the specific aim of the project.
    • Methods: Briefly describe the methods used throughout the project. List key steps carried out, QI tools used and timeframe.
    • Results: Summarise the results from the project and include sufficient evidence to support the results and to identify what changes have emerged. The evidence must support the conclusions made.
    • Conclusions (There should be a Conclusion or Take-home message).
  6. Please include images, graphs and charts as suggested in the poster templates.
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Template 1
Template 2
Template 3