GUIDANCE AND TEMPLATE
Click here to visit the linked web page
3.0 – Map the care pathway
3.2 – Identify pathway activities
This template is designed to help you identify the activities in your care pathway. An activity is an action which the
workforce need to carry out for a person to move along the pathway. The first section of this template provides
guidance about this step and signposts the tool ‘how to conduct an activities interview’ which will allow you to
obtain information about your pathway’s activities. The second section provides a template to record this
information.
This template is one of a series related to the step of map the care pathway. The other sections of the toolkit are
listed/linked below:
© CfWI | 2011
1.0
Current and future landscape
2.0
Define the care pathway scope
3.0
Map the care pathway
3.1
Identify the main pathway stages
3.2
Identify the pathway activities
[YOU ARE HERE]^^^
3.3
Pathway mapping
4.0
Understand the current workforce
5.0
Identify pathway blockages
6.0
Conduct skills mapping
7.0
Conduct workforce analysis
8.0
Redesign the care pathway
Modelling the workforce series
Introduction
DESCRIPTION OF THE STEP
The stage map the care pathway allows you to understand who is doing what along the pathway. It feeds into the
workforce analysis which will appraise different options for how the workforce can be utilised (referred to as
scenarios within the eight-stage approach). As part of mapping the pathway, it is important to identify the
pathway’s main stages. Dividing the pathway into discrete sub-units will make it easier to establish the main
activities, and who is carrying out these activities.
RELEVANCE TO WORKFORCE
Identifying the activities of a care pathway allows deep insight into the tasks that the workforce carries out on a
day-to-day basis. The process of identifying activities can help the workforce to clarify their roles, and how they fit
into the overall pathway. It also gives people the opportunity to convey tasks they are carrying out which are not
part of their role, and to relay information about task duplication and inefficiencies in task allocation that they may
be aware of.
© CfWI | 2011
Modelling the workforce series
The template
DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLATE
This template allows you to record information about the key activities in your care pathway. These activities
should be generic tasks as opposed to the details of how things are done at a clinical level. The activities should
be mutually exclusive (not overlapping) and cover all that needs to be done in each stage of the pathway. It is
also important to distinguish between one-off activities (activity is done and we move on to the next one) and
ongoing support activities that may span several stages.
In order to obtain information about activities, you need to conduct interviews with your workforce. Guidance on
completing these interviews is included below the template data capture table.
TEMPLATE
The following table should be used to record information about the activities in your care pathway.
Stage
Name of activity
Description of activity
Role reported as carrying out
the activity
A
What is the name of the activity?
What is the activity?
Who carries out the activity?
B
What is the name of the activity?
What is the activity?
Who carries out the activity?
C
What is the name of the activity?
What is the activity?
Who carries out the activity?
(etc.)
What is the name of the activity?
What is the activity?
Who carries out the activity?
© CfWI | 2011
Modelling the workforce series
Stage
Name of activity
Description of activity
Role reported as carrying out
the activity
Conducting interviews
This tool will help you to conduct an effective activities interview. There are a number of components to the tool:
 how to select your interviewees and inform them about the interview
 what questions you might ask during the interview
 how to record the answers.
How to select your interviewees and inform them about the interview
Carry out interviews with at least one member of every staff group that is involved with the pathway to ensure that
you get information from all sources, and that no activities are omitted. If possible, speak to more than one staff
member from each group to capture different perspectives. It is important to communicate effectively with
interviewees to ensure they engage in the process.
When informing staff about the interview it is important to highlight that you are interested in finding out about
what activities they carry out along the care pathway, and to work with them and see if there are opportunities to
improve the way things are currently done. You should signpost what will be done with the information collected,
as it is common for people to worry about their job security when questioned about the activities they undertake.
What questions you might ask during the interview
To help you obtain all the information that you need from your activities interviews, a list of suggested questions if
provided below. These questions can be adapted to suit your particular situation and should give a useful starting
point for discussions.
1.
Can you describe the pathway?
2.
What activities do you undertake along this pathway?
3.
Are there any particular bottlenecks along the pathway? There may be issues related to process, duplication,
workforce, availability of resources, availability of skills, and so on.
How to record answers
To record information obtained during the interviews, we suggest using the format below, which allows activities
to be simply listed according to the pathway stage they fall into.
If interviews are conducted with more than one member of a staff group, the activities listed can be combined
once the interviews are completed to give a summary of the tasks undertaken by the group.
© CfWI | 2011
Modelling the workforce series
Key activities carried out along the [insert name]
pathway
Role title:
[…]
Stage [XXX]
Stage [XXX]
Stage [XXX]
Stage [XXX]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
© CfWI | 2011
Modelling the workforce series