Quality Assurance Flashcards
Discuss the benefits of conducting an audit in practice, with examples from relevant examples.
- Assessment of effectiveness in interventions: SSNAP measured outcome measured allowing for analysis to see how improvement were made compared to certain interventions. This allows for quality healthcare as it provides evidence to support treatment.
-Ensures clinical guidelines are being adhered to: SSNAP provided clear information about amount of physiotherapy being received on average per patient. The result was 22.3 nationally, compared to a target 27.3, showing a shortcoming.
- Improvements in time management: In the case of SSNAP, time was a primary measure, allowing services to analyse how time management could be used to improve efficiency and results.
- Shows regional differences: SSNAP compared results from different regions, allowing different services to compare their results and take inspiration from other services to improve their own service.
Discuss the challenges of conducting an audit in practice, with examples from relevant examples.
Time and resource constraints: I have firsthand experienced this challenge, during a stroke placement in Bath. Practitioners are often expected to input various information e.g outcome measures or time spent with patients. Often they cannot remember exactly these values and used some estimation/ guessing to ensure data was completed. However, this can cause skewed data, which could lead to false conclusions being drawn.
Maintaining confidentiality: Audits often include analysis and reviewing of patient healthcare records. This comes with some risks related to data protection. Therefore proper data collection/ analysis protocols must be developed/ enforced to ensure confidentiality. This can be time and resource consuming.
Define Clinical Governance and state the 7 pillars
Clinical governance = the overarching group of activities in which clinicians should be aware involved in to ensure quality healthcare is being provided. It can refer to structures, culture, and processes required to ensure quality services.
7 pillars (Donabedian, 1990) = risk management, audit, education and training, clinical effectiveness, patient involvement, information management, staff management
What is the relevance of the pillars to practice?
All 7 pillars are relevant to physio and should be considered in clinical settings, they are crucial to the safety, effectiveness, and continually improving nature of physio services
How is education and training used to ensure the delivery of a quality service?
1: In service training. On one of my previous placements, senior/ experienced team members provided in service training for FES equipment. This training provided clinicians to familiarise themselves with the equipment before use with patients. This helps to ensure confidence and competency going into sessions which helps to ensure a quality service
2: Continuous personal development: CPD is required by the HCPC as part of registration and ensures that practitioners stay up to date with recent developments in healthcare. Physios will often have the opportunity to attend workshops to learn about new techniques/ to engage with other practitioners. CPD ensures the maintenance of evidence based practice which is recognised as being vital for delivering a safe, quality service.
3: Utilisation of supervision/ mentorship: Often, students or newly qualified physios will be assigned a supervisor to provide them with opportunities to discuss cases or to ask any questions. This education opportunities helps less experienced team members to shape their treatment decisions which leads to quality healthcare. Alternatively, this education could come in the form of shadowing, which i have experienced in my previous placements. From my firsthand experience, shadowing helps to provide the confidence and inspiration needed for the quality delivery of care.