Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Current Psychology https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05359-6 “Allowing the community, that is, the essential benefciaries, to take the lead”: Using the perspectives of health workers to inform a contextually relevant quality improvement intervention in the Nigerian health system Ifeanyichukwu Anthony Ogueji 1,2  · Oluwatosin Olakunle Motajo 3  · Obinna Orjingene 4  · Adebayo O. Adejumo 1  · Abiodun Bolarinwa Oduola 5  · Abimbola Victoria Ajayi 6 Accepted: 23 October 2023 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023 Abstract The Nigerian health system is confronted with challenges, including but not limited to incompleteness of health data, dilapidated medical equipment, and poor healthcare fnancing. Thus, the Nigerian health system needs to be improved. A quality improvement intervention is a systematic continuous approach that aims to solve problems in the health system and is commonly employed to support health system development. A quality improvement intervention is more likely to work if the approach fts the targeted health system, but, there is no in-depth information on how to make a quality improvement intervention ft for the Nigerian health system. Thus, the authors consulted with health workers, key actors in the Nigerian health system regarding this. Fifty-one diverse health workers (30 health care providers & 21 health service managers) partici- pated in this qualitative survey. The age and work experience of the participants ranged from 24 to 76 years and 1 to 50 years, respectively. Thematic analysis was performed on the data, and the main fndings are reported in this abstract. The fndings support that there are diverse problems across all health system building blocks. Problems in a health system building block may afect other health system building blocks. Thus, a contextually relevant quality improvement intervention in the country needs to utilize a systems thinking approach. Further, the fndings suggest that collaboration, government involvement, and a data-driven approach are benefcial for developing a contextually relevant quality improvement intervention. In addition to being benefcial for developing a contextually relevant quality improvement intervention, collaboration is benefcial for implementing a contextually relevant quality improvement intervention. Finally, the fndings suggest that a client-centered approach and monitoring activities are also benefcial for implementing a contextually relevant quality improvement interven- tion. This study provides important insights into the factors that may help the planning and implementation of a contextually relevant quality improvement intervention. Future work must investigate if the application of fndings to the Nigerian context results in improved outcomes of a quality improvement intervention. Keywords Contextually relevant · Quality improvement · Health workers · Health system · Nigeria · Qualitative research Introduction A quality improvement (QI) intervention is defned as a systematic continuous approach that aims to solve prob- lems in healthcare, improve service provision, and ulti- mately provide better outcomes for patients (Backhouse & Ogunlayi, 2020). Batalden and Davidof (2007) also defned a QI intervention as the combined and unceasing eforts of everyone – healthcare professionals, patients and their families, researchers, payers, planners, and educa- tors – to make the changes that will lead to better patient * Ifeanyichukwu Anthony Ogueji ifeanyiogueji21@gmail.com; aogueji@apin.org.ng 1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria 2 APIN Public Health Initiatives, Abuja, Nigeria 3 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state, Nigeria 4 Health Population and Nutrition Ofce, U.S. Agency for International Development, Abuja, Nigeria 5 Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria 6 Lagos State Health Service Commission, Lagos, Nigeria