Quality Assurance: For Nurses and Other Members of the Health Care Team (The Essentials of Nursing Management Series, 5)

As professionals, we can no longer rely upon our own judgement to monitor the standard of patient care. The government and the purchaser demand objective structured measurement of the quality of the care offered to our patients. At the same time, an ever-increasing workload brings its own pressures. The second edition of this successful book addresses these issues. It outlines the theoretical background of quality assurance and provides practical guidelines on the implementation of a variety of monitoring tools. The approach has been designed to give the reader an easy grasp of the main principles associated with the tool, and to enable successful implementation of the system. Front Matter....Pages i-xii An Introduction to Quality Assurance....Pages 1-27 Total Quality Management....Pages 29-35 Standards of Care....Pages 37-69 Clinical Audit....Pages 71-94 Clinical Protocols....Pages 95-109 Monitoring of Providers by Purchasers....Pages 111-121 Back Matter....Pages 123-137 This second edition outlines the theoretical background of quality assurance for patient care, and provides practical guidelines on the implementation of a variety of monitoring tools. It has been written to be accessible and relevant