Final Report > Chapter 25: Competent Healthcare Professionals > Broadening the notion of competence > Clinical audit and reflective practice

Clinical audit and reflective practice

22 Clinical audit, the process whereby healthcare professionals reflect on and improve their and the team's clinical practice is fundamental to improving the quality of care received by patients. The NHS is already committed to the notion that participation in clinical audit will be compulsory. It is essential, therefore, that those entering the healthcare professions are given a good grounding in the basic skills of clinical audit: what it is; how it should be conducted; what is meant by team-based audit; how to understand and interpret data; how to use published material and evidence of effective practice; how to use national standards and guidance; how to understand the nature of error and mistakes; and how to learn from them. We see this as an area that cries out for a common core curriculum for the professions. If we expect multi-professional team-based clinical audit, it makes no sense at all to educate nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals about clinical audit along separate lines. Equally, those already in practice should be able, as part of their continuing professional development, to gain access to further training in clinical audit, and there must be opportunities for clinical teams, who carry out shared audit, to train together.