In quality improvement, the "Plan" phase is best described as:

• A. Establishing the objective and plan for change
• B. Implementing the change
• C. Studying the results after change
• D. Acting on the results without plan

Answer: (A)

In quality improvement, the Plan phase is where you define the aim of the change and lay out a concrete plan for testing it. This means specifying what you want to achieve, selecting the change to test, detailing who will do what, deciding when and where the test will run, and determining how you will measure success. By clarifying objectives and the testing approach before acting, you set up a focused, testable change. The actual implementation happens in the Do phase; studying results occurs in the Study phase; and acting on results—adopting, modifying, or abandoning the change—occurs in the Act phase. So, establishing the objective and plan for change best fits this phase.