Clinical Governance is an umbrella term covering a wide range of Essay

Clinical Governance is an umbrella term covering a wide range of quality, accountability and risk management issues. Assess the impact of Clinical Governance - Essay Example Van Zwanenberg fro Oxford defines clinical governance as "a powerful, new and comprehensive mechanism for ensuring that high standards of clinical care are maintained throughout the NHS and the quality of service is continuously improved" (Zwanenberg, 2000). Clinical Governance is a practice that was brought about by the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS), to describe and establish a systematic approach to improve the quality of patient care. The framework of clinical governance aims at establishing the same levels of quality and accountability and management in clinics and hospitals that the framework of corporate governance aims at establishing in an organization. Prior to 1999, ensuring financial management and acceptable levels of patient care quality were the only mandatory responsibilities of the trust boards on NHS. Since 1999, the NHS trust boards accepted the need for improving the quality of service extended to patients; the effect of which was the adoption of clinical governance. Successful implementation of clinical governance mandates continual professional development for the whole primary care team. Each and every team member must be involved. The main challenge that teams may face is the transition shift to a m ultidisciplinary, team based learning. The tasks of clinical governance are complex and demanding. It needs efforts from all members of a team. Improving patient care means that all the factors that have an i... Elements of Clinical Governance Improving patient care means that all the factors that have an impact on the care must be studied and improved, which requires a high level of inter-professional understanding. Representatives from all groups of staff must explore 'care' from patient's point of view (Dickinson et al, 2006). Various elements are needed to be carefully understood in order to establish an effective patient care. Nigel Starey, Director, Center for Primary Care from University of Derby identifies some of the major elements that build effective clinical governance (Starey, 2003). Education: Continual sustained professional education is mandatory for all health care professionals. It is found out that a substantial amount of what is learnt during training is quickly forgotten. Post Registration Education and Practice (PREP) for nurses, Postgraduate Education Allowance (PGEA) for GPs, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for hospital doctors are some of the various systems that are prevalent to assist health care professionals in their continued professional education. Another essential aspect of continual education is team based learning. Until recently, only the general practitioners attended educational events. The educational requirements of nurses and other staff members were neglected (Pringle, 2000). However the new emphasis on education stresses professional development for all the team members. Clinical Audit: Measurement of the prevalent standards of a clinic against the pre determined standards is a very crucial element of clinical governance. The standards must be pre determined at regular intervals by medical directors