Meet Bradley Osmond: An inspiration for quality improvement and patient safety

“I think I was always destined to work in quality improvement,” said Bradley Osmond, a quality improvement and patient safety leader at Nova Scotia Health. He has dedicated his career to making a difference in healthcare. Originally from Newfoundland, Osmond earned a business degree from Acadia University and a Masters in Applied Health Services Research from Dalhousie University in Halifax. 

His career path spanned community health, primary healthcare, access and wait times and now finally to his current role. In this role, his daily routine includes reviewing all the safety incident management reporting system entries and identifying consistent trends. These trends can be looked at as areas of improvement in both quality and safety, and also patient experience.

In addition, Osmond is also an improvement coach for the Nova Scotia Health Quality Improvement Collaborative. The collaborative is formed twice a year after a call for applications from staff, physicians, leaders and patient family advisors who have identified an area of improvement and are seeking to build capability to use improvement methods to address it. 

Up to 25 participants are selected each round and over a five-month period they participate in virtual learning sessions and form a team to design, implement and evaluate an evidence-informed quality improvement initiative that addresses the pressing priority or challenge that they identified. Each team works with an improvement coach who provides advice, guidance and support for their initiative.

Using this approach, Osmond believes in starting small, testing changes and learning from the experience. “It's ideal to start small, test changes to see if they are an improvement, learn from and build on that experience or stop because the juice isn't worth the squeeze,” said Osmond. This philosophy has guided his work with teams who are already interested and engaged in making improvements for their unit, team or program.

Working as a coach, Osmond believes it’s important that the environment is inclusive and supportive, one where people feel comfortable taking risks and learning from failures. He stresses the importance of deep, intentional learning and supporting his team in their journey of continuous improvement.

Osmond is more than just a quality improvement coach and patient safety leader. He is a beacon of change, a champion of quality improvement and an advocate for patient safety. His work is a testament to his dedication and passion for healthcare, and his story serves as an inspiration for all those who aspire to make a difference in the field. And he is not alone. There are QIS improvement coaches in each zone.

Photo of Bradley Osmond, a quality improvement and patient safety leader at Nova Scotia Health.