Change Management student wins NNK Research Prize for Quality Management

With a Master’s thesis on the role of indicators for quality improvements in the care sector, Gerdien Regts-Walters, student at the Faculty of Economics and Business, has won the Research Prize for Quality Management awarded by the NNK (Dutch Network for Quality Management). The prize-giving ceremony will be held on Friday 15 May on an NNK symposium.
 

Until now, academic research has mainly focused on the development of indicators and not on how working with indicators can actually produce quality improvements in the care sector. In addition, although increasingly confronted with indicators, it is not always clear to hospitals what quality improvements can be produced by indicators.

Gerdien Regts-Walters conducted research in hospitals in the region of the Integral Cancer Centre North-East (IKNO), in so-called mamma teams, multi-disciplinary teams for treatment of breast cancer. The researcher explored how the various teams worked with indicators to achieve improvements and which advantages and disadvantages they experienced.

Cum laude
With this thesis, Regts-Walter has completed her Master’s programme Change Management at the University of Groningen cum laude. She already started her PhD at the Faculty of Economics and Business on relational aspects affecting work satisfaction and turnover among nurses.

Assessment
The Research Prize jury consisted of NNK Dutch Academy for Quality members. In addition to criteria like structure and theoretical and methodological foundations of the research project, the jury examined aspects such as applicability in practice, added value for the discipline of quality management, pioneering qualities and social relevance.
 
The NNK
The Dutch Network for Quality Management awards the Research Prize in order to stimulate new, valuable impulses for the discipline of quality management. The competition was open to students from Higher Professional Education, universities and research institutes.
 
Prize-giving ceremony
On Friday 15 May, NNK organises a symposium on which Gerdien Regts-Walter will present her research project to a wide audience of representatives from the field of quality management.