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Welcome to Module 5: Application, Writing a Specific Aim, and
then creating a timeline to help to guide your improvement work.
As you recall, this is the worksheet that we have been following so
far, and in step one, you created your global aim.
In step two, you looked at the evidence to support your project.
And then in the third step, you looked at the systems involved or
the context that is important to evaluate in
order to understand where you're going to be implementing your improvement.
For this step, as we turn the worksheet over to side B, and
we look at step four, which is the specific aim.
So as you recall from the theory lecture,
writing a specific aim is facilitated by using this rubric.
And that is the smart rubric,
where you really want your specific aim to be very specific,
measurable, attainable, reasonable, and then have a time frame so
you know when to measure your improvement efforts.
This is the template that we'd like for
you to use for creating your specific game.
If you follow the template, your aim will be very specific.
You will be able to measure your outcome at the completion of your project.
The assignment for this week would be to write a specific aim for your project.
We'd also like for
you to determine a timeline or a Gantt chart for your project.
This is an important tool in quality improvement,
because it keeps the system and keeps your project on target.
It keeps the project moving along.
Timelines or Gantt charts really help you to set the goals for
completion of the steps of the project.
It also helps you to track the team’s progress or lack of progress.
The timeline or
Gantt chart will help motivate the team by reminding them of their accomplishments.
And as you recall from the readiness assessment from module two,
celebrating success and accomplishments is an important part of improvement.
And lastly the timeline and Gantt chart,
helps you to summarize the steps taken to accomplish your improvement.
There are many timelines out on the internet that you can use.
This is one of my favorites, where the time is along the horizontal axis,
and then you place in to the time on
the horizontal axis the tasks that need to be completed.
Another tool that can be used is the Gantt chart.
And the Gantt chart sample is provided here.
On the left column of the Gantt chart is where you put your steps or
the processes that you would like to achieve during your project.
And then across the top of the columns are the dates, and you can fill in
then what you need to accomplish at each date for each process step that occurs.
Your assignment for this week then is not only to create your specific aim, but
then also to create your timeline.
Now you can use one of the templates that we provide, or
you can go onto the internet and
find a template that maybe would be more useful or productive for your team.
Enjoy your assignment and we look forward to seeing you at
Module 6 where we discuss the first application of variation and data.
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