Aim Statements
What is it?
An aim statement is a clear, specific summary of what you aim to achieve over the life of the project. It should explicitly state what you want to improve, for who, by how much, and by when.
Why use it?
A well-written aim statement is the foundation of a QI project. This makes the project achievable and, when implemented well, can stop the project from ‘growing arms and legs’.
Research shows that teams who develop a good aim increase the likelihood of success.
A well-written aim statement then makes it easier to find the project’s outcome measures, and is important in creating a driver diagram and finding ideas for what to test.
An aim statement answers the first question of the Model for Improvement “What are we trying to accomplish?”
How to use it?
Consider what you want to achieve. There may be a broader aim that is difficult to quantify. In this case, there may be a smaller aim that you initially focus on. It can be useful to look at your fishbone diagram in this case if you are going to select a subsection of the work. The aim focuses on improving one element.
An aim statement should answer all of the following:
What will improve?
Who will it improve for?
How much will it improve by?
When will it be achieved by?
e.g. “To navigate patients to the right practitioner at the right time”. This is a very broad aim (a global aim) worth breaking down (specific aim statement). After consultation with a team, they agree to begin with care navigation for patients who are appropriate to see the practice’s ANP. Later, once they have made improvements in this area, the team will consider care navigation for other services like pharmacy.
What will improve: Patients will be offered care navigation to the ANP
Who will it improve for: Patients who phone for an on the day appointment reporting symptoms of acute illness
How much will it improve by: 100%
When will it be achieved by: April 2020
Aim: By April 2020, 100% of patients phoning for an on-the-day appointment reporting symptoms of acute illness will be offered care navigation to the ANP.
e.g. I want to save money for a holiday
What will improve: The amount of money for my holiday
Who will it improve for: Me
How much will it improve by: To £2000
When will it be achieved by: June 2020
Aim statement: I will save £2000 for my holiday in June 2020.
An aim statement should not have a solution written within it e.g. Improve INR recording by using CoaguCheck for all Warfarin patients by April 2020.
A QI project should not have the solution before it begins. The project is an opportunity to test solutions before finding the right one. By including a solution in the aim, it limits the opportunities to test other solutions that may work better than the original hypothesised solution.
A framework that can be useful is SMART criteria. This helps to write aims that are:
Specific – What is the one thing that you’re trying to achieve? (The ‘what’)
Measurable – How will you know you’ve reached your goal? (The ‘how much’)
Achievable – Is this actually possible? Could making it smaller make it more possible?
Relevant – Why is this important?
Time-bound – When will this be accomplished by? (The ‘when’)
Another framework is STAN:
Specific - Include boundaries and outcomes (‘How good’)
Time-bound - When will this be accomplished by? (‘By when’)
Aligned - How does it link to strategic priorities at a national or board level?
Numeric - Is your goal quantifiable?
More information
NICHQ - click for more examples for writing aim statements
Quality Improvement Zone NES - click for a different way of explaining how to write aim statements.
IHI - click for more examples of aim statements
NHS Improvement - click for more information about writing aim statements.