Clinical Audit Online Course

About This Course

Clinical audit is one of the most practical tools healthcare teams have for closing the gap between the care that is actually delivered and the care that evidence says should be delivered. This course introduces clinical audit as a systematic, cyclical quality improvement activity: what it is, how it differs from research, and why it has become a core professional expectation for clinicians, nurses, allied health staff and quality practitioners alike. You will work through the clinical audit cycle stage by stage. This includes choosing a worthwhile topic using quality impact analysis, defining evidence-based standards and writing SMART criteria aligned with recognised frameworks such as CBAHI and JCI, deciding between retrospective and concurrent data collection, designing a simple and reliable data collection tool, and then analysing and presenting your results clearly using tables, bar charts, pie charts, line graphs and histograms. The course then moves from findings to action. You will learn how to draw defensible, evidence-based conclusions, how to uncover the real reasons behind a performance gap using root cause analysis techniques such as the Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram, the Five Whys and process mapping, and how to translate those insights into a Quality Improvement Plan with clear actions, owners, milestones, multidisciplinary involvement and monitoring arrangements. Finally, you will see how re-auditing closes the loop and turns a one-off project into sustained improvement. The course is delivered in English as a self-paced interactive module. It is followed by a 15-question assessment with unlimited attempts, and a short evaluation survey that helps us keep improving the programme.

Requirements

• No previous clinical audit experience is required. The course is designed for physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and quality and patient safety staff who take part in, or lead, audit and improvement work.
• Participants should be comfortable reading professional English and be familiar with routine clinical documentation and record keeping in their own setting.
• Access to a computer or tablet with an internet connection is needed to complete the interactive module and the assessment.
• To pass the course and receive recognition you must achieve an overall weighted score of 80%. The final assessment contributes 70% of the grade and the interactive module contributes 30%.