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Leading Better Care - Delivering for Patients

Leading Better Care enables Senior Charge Nurses / Midwives and Team Leaders to deliver better care in consistent, measurable, evidence based way

To achieve this vision, the following aims and objectives have been agreed:

LBC Aims

  • All Senior Charge Nurses, Senior Charge Midwives and Team Leaders will be working in the context of the LBC components:
  • To ensure safe and effective clinical practice
  • To enhance the patients experience
  • To manage and develop the performance of the team
  • To ensure effective contribution to the delivery of the organisations objectives

by March 2013 and able to demonstrate this.

  • Nurses & Midwives will be able to demonstrate  the contribution they make to the quality and experience of care that patients receive under the three themes by March 2013:
  • Safe
  • Effective
  • Person centred

Clinical Decision Making

Decision making is an integral part of all of our lives.

Some decisions are relatively trivial: should I have tea or coffee with breakfast? Whilst others are much more involved: what should I say to my friend whose child has just died?

The reason the second decision is harder is that it is related not just to cognition or thinking, but it also involves emotions and biases.

In recent years the subject of clinical decision making has been surfaced as important for a number of reasons. Just as in everyday life, clinical practice is rife with decisions to be made. Indeed it has been estimated that perhaps 80% of our time during clinical practice is spent thinking and making decisions and is dependent on context.

    • Scottish Clinical Decision Making Group

      In order to support clinical training and education in this fundamental area a special interest group has been formed within the Scottish Clinical Skills Network (SCSN). This comprises a multi-professional group from across Scotland, the NHS and the universities.

      Three broad aims have been agreed:

      • The personal and professional development of the group members through workshops, meetings, e-communication and the sharing of resources and ideas.
      • The generation of a depository of web-based learning materials and resources on clinical decision making.
      • The identification of key areas for research on clinical decision making and its interface with other clinical skills.

      In conjunction with colleagues in Clinical Skills Managed Educational Network (CSMEN) and in NES the group has evolved a Clinical Decision Making Community Website. This provides a forum for interaction and is the site where educational materials including live tutorials are available. Further materials, including online evaluation are being developed and discussions on research involving team working and decision making have been initiated.