RACP - Project Design >> Initiating Your Project

Project Design >> Initiating Your Project

Key tasks during the design phase can be divided into three broad groups:

The exact order and manner in which you undertake these tasks when you initiate your project will vary, depending on local factors. There is no set blueprint to follow.

For example, project initiation can occur in different ways, including:

an individual might initiate the project and then try to persuade others to become involved; or
a project might come out of group discussion within an existing multidisciplinary team, perhaps in response to concerns raised by quality and safety committees in relation to potential or known problems.

How your project is initiated can influence the manner and order in which design tasks are tackled.

When individuals initiate projects, they are exercising a form of clinical leadership. It is important, however, not to do too much detailed design work before involving others in the project. Participation by other clinicians and team members such as managers and consumers, in particular those who may be directly affected by project activities, is more likely if they have been directly involved in the project�s design.

Failing to invite the cardiac rehabilitation nurse co-ordinators to their meetings resulted in one CSS project team having to expend time and effort convening high-level meetings with senior nurses, cardiologists and other clinicians to explain in detail the aims of the project.

The rehabilitation nurses then became active supporters of the project, resulting in some of the best changes in practice and subsequent improvement in rehabilitation-related indicators.