A descriptive study on clinical department managers’ cognition of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and factors influencing their cognition

BACKGROUND: The mastery and application of the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” (PDCA) cycle by hospital clinical department managers are essential for hospitals to carry out total quality management and continuously improve medical quality. This study investigated the degree of cognition of the PDCA cycle by clinical department managers and the factors affecting their cognition. METHODS: A self-designed questionnaire was used to evaluate the cognition of clinical department managers regarding the PDCA cycle in 11 municipal public Class III Grade A hospitals in Western China. RESULTS: More than 25% of clinical department managers in the surveyed hospitals are unaware or partially aware of the PDCA cycle. Logistic regression analysis showed that sex (P = 0.049), education (P < 0.001), duty (P < 0.001), and tenure (P = 0.002) had a significant influence on managers’ cognition of PDCA. Participants who were female (P < 0.001), undergraduate (P < 0.001), head nurses, or deputy head nurses (P < 0.001), with a tenure of 5–10 years (P = 0.024) had a better cognition of the PDCA cycle. In the daily management of the department, the vast majority of managers do not implement the Check and Action steps. Among the trained managers, only 65.44% applied the complete PDCA cycle in daily management. Nearly a third of managers thought PDCA was a response to hospital demands; 82.83% of the managers need to receive PDCA cycle training, and half of them indicated a preference for online training. CONCLUSIONS: The cognition level of hospital clinical department managers regarding the PDCA cycle is relatively low, especially among the clinical department heads, and most of them are willing to accept PDCA cycle training. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-023-04293-2.