Another Clinical Audit Awareness Week is in the can… edition 7 done! Did it exceed our expectations, was it OK or were we left disappointed? Well from looking at social media and Twitter in particular, you can’t accuse most local teams of not doing their best. From Monday to Friday, there was a steady stream of tweets highlighting local tea breaks, training, drop-in sessions, quizzes, competitions, conferences. Clinical teams pledged their support for audit, shared audit case studies, some even recorded short films.
At a national level NQICAN led the way with voting on their competitions reaching unprecedented heights and interest in their forum gaining momentum. HQIP got in on the act too, awarding hero status to individuals and teams on a daily basis. We can’t fault the effort put in…. lots of people worked hard to raise the profile of clinical audit.
And yet, there is a slightly nagging feeling that the razzamatazz will die down all too quick and little meaningful change will come out of #CAAW19. This is a theme that Craig Short has brilliantly written about in his final guest blog of the week for us, click here.
Some disappointing take home messages from #CAAW19 for us were that primary care and social care certainly didn’t come to the party. I did not see one tweet from a CCG, GP or practice nurse. There was also limited discussion on national audit and how those working across the NHS landscape need to collaborate in future to improve national audits. We would also encourage a few more national leaders to get involved. The odd tweet here and there from anonymous Twitter accounts doesn’t feel like real participation.
Onwards to Christmas, the New Year and dare I say it #CAAW20. Trust me, it will be here before you know it. Indeed, if I had my way it would be here even quicker, as I’d make the case for #CAAW20 in September not November. No chance of winter pressures and less likelihood of staff being off sick as the cold starts to bite. Lighter nights, warmer days and #CAAW20 coinciding it with the academic year to help focus on learning.
Congratulations to all those who took part. Even bigger congratulations to those teams that are building on the momentum generated by #CAAW20. The true leaders in our profession are those who are doing pretty much the same this week as they did from 25-29 November.