BMJ  2008;336:1241-1245 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39527.628322.AD

Practice

The Competent Novice

Audit: how to do it in practice

Andrea Benjamin, clinical editor, foundation programme

1 BMJ Learning, BMA House, London WC1H 9JR

ABenjamin@bmjgroup.com

Junior doctors can find the process of doing an audit helpful in gaining an understanding of the healthcare process—here’s how to do one

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Audit measures practice against performance
The audit cycle involves five stages: preparing for audit; selecting criteria; measuring performance level; making improvements; sustaining improvements
Choose audit topics based on high risk, high volume, or high cost problems, or on national clinical audits, national service frameworks, or guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
Derive standards from good quality guidelines
Use action plans to overcome the local barriers to change and identify those responsible for service improvement
Repeat the audit to find out whether improvements in care have been implemented after the first audit


In the United Kingdom, doctors in the first two years after graduation are asked to perform an audit. Audit measures practice against standards. Unlike research (which asks the question, "what is the right thing to do?"), clinical audit asks, "are we doing the right thing in the right way?"1

Clinical audit forms part of clinical . . . [Full text of this article]

Identify the problem and the local resources available for audit
Determine what you are trying to measure and define gold standards
Collect data
Compare performance with criteria
Repeat audit

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