• After reviewing this poster, attendees will be able to articulate the importance and context of NMQSLA, noting why the program exists and what attendees can expect to understand following completion of said program.
2. Awareness of NMQSLA Projects Developed thus far:
• After reviewing this poster, attendees will be able to describe the types of projects NMQSLA Scholars are developing and how NMQSLA is fostering continuous improvement through identification and design of Capstone Projects.
3. Context for the Future of NMQSLA:
• After reviewing this poster, attendees will be able to describe how NMQSLA includes a variety of learning modalities to foster adult learning and enhance retention and application of learned content.
The Surgeon General of the Navy and the Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO) at the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) host the Navy Medicine Quality and Safety Leadership Academy (NMQSLA). This leadership program trains current and future Navy Medicine leaders in the principles of High Reliability Organizations (HRO), patient safety, and quality of care to transform operational and traditional health care settings in alignment with Navy Medicine’s goal of reaching zero preventable harm. After recently completing its twelfth iteration, NMQSLA has graduated 465 leaders who are equipped to disseminate and implement HRO principles throughout their commands. A critical component of NMQSLA is the Capstone Project, where Scholars work in groups of 5-7 personnel to identify a key problem within their command and develop an initiative centered around HRO principles designed to remedy that problem. Over the course of eight weeks, Scholars collaborate with their peers to build an implementation strategy for these initiatives and ultimately present them to a panel of Navy Medicine leaders who provide feedback on the scope and implementation strategies for each. 16 projects were produced over Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, ranging in focus from encouraging patient safety reporting to improving Fleet surgical team performance ahead of deployment. The future of the program will seek to elevate these types of projects, using a formal rubric to highlight especially high-impact initiatives designed to be implemented in the operational space, to ensure they receive the visibility necessary to translate their ideas into action. Ultimately, NMQSLA is intended to help develop HRO leaders within Navy Medicine. By providing a forum for milestone and command billeted personnel to both discuss the major problems facing Navy Medicine and develop various solutions to solve those problems, NMQSLA helps its Scholars share knowledge and best practices across their leadership cadre within Navy Medicine, understand their own impact as leaders, and determine the best ways to facilitate that impact within their own areas of responsibility.