Trying to do two things at once is usually a recipe for doing both badly, according to a long line of research. We’re slower and less accurate when we try to juggle two things. Experts came to believe that there wasn’t much that could be done about this, so most of the advice in HBR has been to avoid multitasking as much as possible. But if giving up multitasking isn’t an option, a new study  published in inPsychological Science offers some hope: your ability to multitask may depend on whether you were trained to do the two tasks separately or simultaneously.

NHS Improving Quality has produced two bite-sized guides supporting staff on their journey to becoming experts in the field. The first guide, entitled ‘The One Hour Improvement Expert: How to Become an Improvement Measure Expert in 60 Minutes’, is designed to offer an interactive introduction to the topic, featuring signposting to experts and key resources. The guide is divided up into a series of sections giving staff simple steps they can take to improve their knowledge and apply it to the workplace. Topics include indicators, sourcing and collecting data, driver diagrams, variation, and analysis. A second guide, entitled ‘The A to Z of Measurement’, aims to demystify much of the key terminology in the field by providing concise definitions. Alison Crawford, Measurement and Evaluation Manager at NHS Improving Quality, said: “There is some fantastic improvement work going on around the country in health care, but it’s vital that staff are supported to measure the work that they are doing.

As health care organizations focus more on keeping people healthy and delivering value, incorporating patient-reported measures (PRMs) as part of their overall performance improvement measurement system will be crucial. A new article in Healthcare Executive by Lucy Savitz, PhD, Director of Research and Education at Intermountain Healthcare and IHI faculty, and Kathy Luther, RN, Vice President at IHI, describes how PRMs help clinicians and patients assess whether a patient’s symptoms, lifestyle, daily activities, and functional status have improved as a result of the care provided.

This study sought to

1. describe the nature of interventions that have been used to reduce length of stay in acute care hospitals;
2. identify the factors that are known to influence length of stay; and
3. assess the impact of interventions on patient outcomes, service outcomes and costs.

Finds the design and implementation of an intervention seeking to reduce (directly or indirectly) the length of stay in hospital should be informed by local context and needs. This involves understanding how the intervention is seeking to change processes and behaviours that are anticipated, based on the available evidence, to achieve desired outcomes (‘theory of change’). It will also involve assessing the organisational structures and processes that will need to be put in place to ensure that staff who are expected to deliver the intervention are appropriately prepared and supported.

http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/131349/FullReport-hsdr02520.pdf

The Selecting for Excellence project was established to address the fact that half of UK secondary schools and colleges did not provide a single applicant to medicine in recent years. This report highlights the need for an expansion of outreach activity to ensure that there is coverage across the whole of the UK. It makes a series of recommendations as to how medical schools, organisations such as Health Education England, and Government, can work together to address them. The report also calls on the NHS to expand the provision of work experience for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

http://www.medschools.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Selecting-for-Excellence-Final-Report.pdf

There is a growing awareness that NHS provider organisations are experiencing a high number of vacancies at senior levels, are reliant on interims and are experiencing a greater ‘churn’ of senior leaders. This situation could have a negative impact on staff morale and engagement, on costs and on performance. The King’s Fund, in collaboration with the HSJ Future of NHS Leadership Inquiry, undertook a freedom of information request to obtain an accurate picture of board-level vacancies, supplementing the data gathered with in-depth interviews and a literature review. This report details the level of vacancies and their impact and suggests reasons for this.

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_publication_file/leadership-vacancies-in-the-nhs-kingsfund-dec14.pdf

Safer Clinical Systems is an approach for improving safe and reliable health care. It is based on principles adapted from high-reliability organisations, established risk management techniques from hazardous industries, and quality improvement methods. The Safer Clinical Systems approach was tested and developed over two phases. This report looks at the theory, summarises the evaluation of the approach and makes various recommendations regarding refinement and development of the approach. It also summarises two case studies where the approach has been used.

http://www.health.org.uk/public/cms/75/76/313/5103/Safer%20Clinical%20Systems_evaluation%20findings.pdf?realName=rL32tX.pdf

This framework sets out the outcomes and corresponding indicators that will be used to hold NHS England to account for improvements in health outcomes.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/385749/NHS_Outcomes_Framework.pdf

Prove It. Over the past 50 years, management practices have become ever more scientific and quantitative. Managing by the numbers, using business analytics and leveraging Big Data are all considered to be unalloyed goods, indicative of enlightened management. Without question, data and analytics have their roles and their benefits. But they have a really important dark side too, and when managers don’t see that dark side, they accidentally kill innovation.

https://hbr.org/2014/12/two-words-that-kill-innovation/

At the end of a busy day, sometimes it’s hard to figure out where the time went. The following excerpt from the book Getting Work Done provides a simple process for you to prioritize your work and understand how you’re actually using your time.

https://hbr.org/2014/12/align-your-time-management-with-your-goals/