Implementing patient safety in practice

The NHS advocates the use of ‘safety huddles’ to support effective communication at key points in the care of individuals, to improve safety. A safety huddle is a short multidisciplinary briefing,...

Pre-anaesthesia preparation in cats and dogs – recent evidence

Although this paper focuses on pre-anaesthesia preparation, it is important to understand factors that affect complications related to anaesthesia. Several studies have been published determining the...

Quality improvement frameworks to maximise wound assessment

As stated above checklists are a cognitive tool to prompt practitioners and ensure vital steps are not missed in an effort to minimise errors. Typically created alongside an evidence-based protocol,...

Quality improvement, checklists and systems of work: why do we need them?

Clinical governance is a requirement of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Code of Professional Conduct for veterinary nurses (RCVS 2012). Scally and Donaldson (1998) defined clinical...