Clinical audit
Evaluating the quality of veterinary care provided in practice is important to ensure that high standards are monitored and maintained. Clinical audit has been shown by the medical profession to be a useful tool for assessing and improving clinical standards. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the governing body of the veterinary profession in the United Kingdom (UK), encourage veterinary surgeons to carry out clinical audit as part of their clinical governance. However, clinical audit is still a relatively new concept and its use remains very varied between businesses in the UK.
The Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine (CEVM) at the University of Nottingham is working with three farm animal veterinary practices in the UK to undertake clinical audit. We hope to determine some of the facilitators and barriers to running clinical audit in practice.
The CEVM have also collected the experiences and attitudes of farm animal veterinary surgeons in the UK towards clinical audit through a nationwide survey.
Contacts: Katie Waine, Dr Marnie Brennan, Dr Rachel Dean, Dr Chris Hudson, Prof Jon Huxley