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Wirral University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Resources to support Audit activities

Below we have compiled a selection of key resources for staff, students, managers and researchers engaged in Audit activities.

All links to these resources can be found in the 'Related Links' section on the left of this page.

If you would like to suggest additions to this selection, please contact us. 

Healthcare Databases

Dependent on the nature of the audit

Healthcare database

Area

Access

AMED

Select Healthcare Databases Advanced Search

Allied Health related topics

See links in the related links section. 

British Nursing Index and CINAHL

Select Healthcare Databases Advanced Search

Healthcare and drugs topics

See links in the related links section. 

HMIC

Select Healthcare Databases Advanced Search

Management, Service Development, Governance and compliance related topics

See links in the related links section. 

MEDLINE

Select Healthcare Databases Advanced Search

Medical, Clinical topics

See links in the related links section. 

PsycINFO

Select Healthcare Databases Advanced Search

Psychological and Leadership aspects

See links in the related links section. 

 

ProQuest Hospital Collection

Pubmed

 

Clinical Decision Making and Evidence Summary Tools

UpToDate:  (available to WUTH staff only) provides evidence based summaries of clinical topics covering more than 20 specialities, as well as nearly 1,500 patient information topics, and more than 27,000 graphics, tables and videos available to download into presentations.  Use UpToDate as a starting point to gain a comprehensive overview of your topic.

Please note that Up to Date is an American resource. This is particularly important when using information on licensed indications, doses and treatment pathways. For UK advice please refer to the Medicines Formulary, the BNF or contact Medicines Information. OpenAthens details are required to access the BNF.

Please contact library staff for details if you need any help in creating or using your OpenAthens account.

Use UpToDate as a starting point to gain a comprehensive overview of your topic. Those who are not familiar with the system can find the UpToDate user guide in the related links section of this page.

 

ProQuest Hospital Collection: Offers an extensive range of health and social care publications and evidence-based resources.

PsycARTICLES: Search full-text articles from leading psychology journals.

If you need any further help please contact the library

 

Systematic reviews

The Cochrane Library: Highest quality evidence including ‘gold standard’ systematic reviews

Turning Research into Practice (TRIP): Clinical search engine

 

Guidelines

NICE guidelines - Provide nationally recognised medical guidelines.

 

Statistical information

NHS Digital: Design, develop and operate the national IT and data services that support clinicians at work, help patients get the best care, and use data to improve health and care.

 

Evidence Alerts

Dependent on the nature of the audit

Please see the full list of specialist Horizon Scanning and Current Awareness Bulletins available

 

Training

Further details about Finding the Evidence and Introduction to Critical Appraisal training.

 

Services

Literature searching service

Document and book supply

Our Specialist Services

Journal Club support service

 

Useful Websites

NICE Evidence Search: Latest published research including guidelines, reports and care pathways

CASP critical appraisal checklists: Checklists to enable you to appraise research studies in a systematic and straightforward way.

National Audit Office: The National Audit Office (NAO) is the UK’s independent public spending watchdog.

NHS England: Leaders of the NHS service in England, their site provides access to a range of information useful to Audit. 

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP): HQIP aims to improve health outcomes by enabling those who commission, deliver and receive healthcare to measure and improve healthcare services.  

Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUINS): This document sets out the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) scheme for 2020–2021.

Patient UK: Provides patient focused information and access to patient statistics. 

Remember to check the websites of the professional bodies relevant to the subject of your audit

 

Examples of library impact

LKS has provided literature search support for audit(s) on the following topics:

  • Robotic hysterectomy versus total laparoscopic hysterectomy - benefits / risks
  • Metformin related B12 deficiency and proposal for guidelines to treat.
  • 1. In patients needing Specialist Palliative Care*(P), do Bisphosphonates (I) improve cancer related bone pain (O) compared with usual treatment* (C)? 2. In patients needing Specialist Palliative Care* (P), does Denosumab (I) improve cancer related bone pain (O) compared with usual treatment* (C)? Population: patients with advanced cancer, requiring support from specialist palliative care. Usual treatment: Non-pharmacological and pharmacological pain management e.g. opiates, NSAIDS
  • National standards for colorectal surgery outcomes - 30 & 90 day mortality, readmission and return to theatre
  • the use/effectiveness of MEWS score in critically ill patient
  • Capillary Refill Time as an assessment of circulatory status in the critically ill
  • Working with people with dementia and their carers
  • Health care professional’s attitudes towards cancer patients who smoke
  • Patient satisfaction of a nurse led telephone follow up service for prostate patients
  • Awareness of CASP tools for critical appraisal skills programme tools among foundation doctors
  • The role of MRI in assessing response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. As compared with the actual pathological response (ie if MRI shows a good response of the tumour to chemotherapy, does this correlate with the actual response seen when the tumour is resected and analysed by the pathologists?)
  • current and new practices/developments regarding radiotherapy induced skin reactions
  • Does follow up of isolated displaced or minimally displaced radial head or neck fracture affect long term outcomes in skeletally mature patients presenting to the emergency department

Please contact us to find out more.