Coaching & Mentoring

A critical marker of a sustainable QI program is the widespread integration of QI principles and tools into the routine work of planning, leading and delivering health care in the participating country. To reach the point of QI integration, a critical mass of individuals who can implement QI work is essential to achieve in-country capacity for QM.

Coaching and mentoring and distinct from training, education, teaching, facilitating, advising and advocating.

HQI focuses particularly on these 2 capacity development strategies because of their critical role in integrating QI into the fabric of organizational structures and functions. Training and teaching are necessary steps for understanding concepts and acquired skills, but implementation can only occur when organizations are supported in using and adapting newly acquired knowledge into routine work.

Coaching focuses on organizational performance at the national, regional and clinic levels. Coaching at different levels may occur simultaneously depending on the implementation plan.  

National level: coaching is directed to supporting implementation and expansion decisions such as indicator prioritization, data analysis, QM planning and the speed and scope of expansion.

 Regional level: HQI staff and the national core team coach coaches, to help improve the quality and effectiveness of the support local health authorities can provide to their local clinics.

Clinic level: coaching is directed to helping clinic staff adapt the general concepts of measurement and improvement to their unique situations and needs using the organizational framework of the HQI model.

Mentoring is a strategy utilized primarily to build the skills, knowledge and confidence of the core in-country implementing team. Mentoring can be seen as a transfusion of experience that in-country staff can draw from as they build their own stores of approaches and solutions.