Clinical Audit process and Enhancement of Nursing Clinical Services Quality

Performance improvement in organizations requires an appropriate model for performance evaluation, as realization of organizational goals in the absence of a comprehensive model for assessing and reviewing plans is impossible and organizations can not apply their effective management as to conducting plans, regardless of the what consequences result from actions. Among currently available models are clinical audit and clinical governance. This article aims to identify the impact of the clinical audit in care and its relationship with quality control, quality enhancement as well as clinical effectiveness in nursing.

This study is a review article based on regular data collection from internet sources including PubMed, and SID, and scientific articles published during 2000 and 2012.

The findings suggest that clinical audit is a cyclical process addressing enhancement of service quality in a specific area through passing different stages. Moreover, this concept can be regarded as a tool for measuring and studying quality of care and can be considered as an educational tool to invent novel thoughts regarding care as well as learning from experiences. Discussion and

With regard to significant effect of clinical audit process on the quality of eservices provided, it seems that such process can help enhancement of services provided by nurses in clinical environments.