The New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute has taught providers and support staff about quality improvement since 1998 and has had the most success when the teaching has been interactive. Based on adult learning theories, learning experiences are most effective when audiences are engaged through interactive and hands-on exercises.

The NQC Game Guide, developed by the National Quality Center (NQC), includes 21 distinct games and is organized around five “critical concepts” for quality improvement, that is, five ideas that are needed to understand and be comfortable applying in quality improvement work. Games are organized under these concepts: Data and Measurement, Systems, Developing Changes, Testing and Making Changes, and Cooperation.

Each game description contains the learning objectives, necessary resources, detailed instructions for playing the game, tips on handling potential pitfalls, and key discussion points to link the activity with quality improvement teachings.

Some of these are classics in the quality improvement field, some come from other disciplines and some we have made up ourselves to bring home an important point. The purpose of this guide is to make these games more broadly available by describing how they work and by clarifying the lessons they help to teach.