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.

An outline of some of the most commonly used methods for assuring the quality of care and their advantages and disadvantages aimed at assisting the charge nurse or ward sister choose the most appropriate measuring tool for his or her clinical area.