Practical audit workshops for nurses

Six practical audit workshops were run for nurses working in the Greater Glasgow Health Board. Between 15 and 25 nurses came for a morning session and returned 6 weeks later for an afternoon session. The participants came from all grades, specialties and units across the health board. The morning session included a basic introduction to the principles and stages of the audit cycle and information on different audit methods. The majority of the time was devoted to small group discussions where individuals were able to develop their own ideas for audit projects relevant to their working situations. Together with one of the organizers, the members of the groups helped each other in the design of the different projects. Almost 65% of attenders (78 out of 122) returned 6 weeks later for the afternoon session and most had begun an audit project in the time interval. These projects were at various stages around the audit cycle. The afternoon sessions started with a talk by a nurse involved in an audit project, followed by the participants returning to their small groups to discuss the successes and problems involved in their own audits. The groups provided further support and advice based on a wide range of different experiences during the intervening time. The projects carried out were impressive both in the quality and the variety of topics covered. Ninety per cent of those attending felt that the knowledge gained from the exercise was of practical use in their own working environment. A measure of the success of the workshops was that several of the later afternoon talks were given by nurses who had attended the earlier workshops.