Clinical Governance
Clinical Governance is a system through which NHS organisations improve the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards the principles by which they do this are:
- Patient involvement
- Information governance
- Risk management
- Audit
- Training + Education
- Evidence based medicine
- Staff management
- Patient involvement: Ensuring that the service provided suits patients. Local feedback from patients. PALS. Patient forums
- IT and information governance: Patient data is accurate, confidentiality is respected, use of data e.g. audits
- Risk management: Learning from mistakes and near misses
- Audit: maintain standards
- Training and education: Attending course, taking exams
- Effectiveness and research: ensuring that everything you do is designed to provide the best outcome for patients (the right thing for the right person in the right place).
- Staff management: Providing good working conditions
Examples of how you can demonstrate clinical governance:
Patient involvement
- Consent using Montgomery principles
- Keep patients informed of changes to care
- Duty of candour when things go wrong
Information governance
- Complete IT training
- Don’t share logins
- Anonymise data when conducting clinical/academic work where possible.
Risk management
- Complete DATIX/incidence reporting.
Audit
- Audits
- Quality improvement projects
Training + Education
- Read papers
- Listen to webinars
- Attend conferences
- Teach others/attend teaching sessions
Evidence based medicine
- Regularly read latest evidence/paper that has changed practice
- Publish/personal involvement with research.
- Developed skills to appraise research
Staff management
- Rota coordination
- Organised swaps with colleagues when requesting leave to minimise disruption etc.
