Abbreviations LPT Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust NMC Nursing and Midwifery Council NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence UHL University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust Background Between 2007 and 2010 there were a number of guidelines published by NICE that were relevant to the clinical practice of Health Visitor and School Nursing Teams. These guidelines were disseminated to all members of staff by the senior nurse via locality managers. Health visitors, school nurses and registered nurses have a professional responsibility to keep up to date with current knowledge in order to ensure they are using evidence based practice (NMC 2008). An audit was carried out of health visitor and school nurse teams in the former county localities in 2011 which highlighted gaps in the knowledge of key issues within these NICE guidelines. A re-audit was recommended for 1 year following this, and additional recommendations were made about the design of the audit tool. There has been an unpublished audit also carried out in 2011 by Dr Forster, consultant paediatrician at UHL, showing that referral rates for prolonged jaundice screens to the children’s day ward had increased. This suggested that staff were more aware of the recommendations of CG98 Neonatal jaundice, although it also identified unexpectedly low referral rates for babies of African-Caribbean ethnicity. It was suggested that there was a reliance on skin colour for diagnosis rather than colour of the sclera or gums, both of which are key features in the identification of jaundice in many of the ethnic groups which comprise a significant proportion of the local population. This new baseline audit measured Health Visitor and School Nursing team members’ knowledge of key areas within the 5 NICE guidelines across Health Visitor and School Nursing teams in the county and city. It was considered to be a new audit as it used new questionnaire as the audit tool, and was carried out across city and county localities within a new organisation. Prior to the audit the quick reference guide for each of the 5 guidelines were circulated by email to all staff via the senior nurse and locality managers. The aim of this was to remind staff of their professional responsibilities to read and be familiar with the content. They were sent out over 5 months, one per
Abbreviations LPT Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust NMC Nursing and Midwifery Council NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence UHL University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust Background Between 2007 and 2010 there were a number of guidelines published by NICE that were relevant to the clinical practice of Health Visitor and School Nursing Teams. These guidelines were disseminated to all members of staff by the senior nurse via locality managers. Health visitors, school nurses and registered nurses have a professional responsibility to keep up to date with current knowledge in order to ensure they are using evidence based practice (NMC 2008). An audit was carried out of health visitor and school nurse teams in the former county localities in 2011 which highlighted gaps in the knowledge of key issues within these NICE guidelines. A re-audit was recommended for 1 year following this, and additional recommendations were made about the design of the audit tool. There has been an unpublished audit also carried out in 2011 by Dr Forster, consultant paediatrician at UHL, showing that referral rates for prolonged jaundice screens to the children’s day ward had increased. This suggested that staff were more aware of the recommendations of CG98 Neonatal jaundice, although it also identified unexpectedly low referral rates for babies of African-Caribbean ethnicity. It was suggested that there was a reliance on skin colour for diagnosis rather than colour of the sclera or gums, both of which are key features in the identification of jaundice in many of the ethnic groups which comprise a significant proportion of the local population. This new baseline audit measured Health Visitor and School Nursing team members’ knowledge of key areas within the 5 NICE guidelines across Health Visitor and School Nursing teams in the county and city. It was considered to be a new audit as it used new questionnaire as the audit tool, and was carried out across city and county localities within a new organisation. Prior to the audit the quick reference guide for each of the 5 guidelines were circulated by email to all staff via the senior nurse and locality managers. The aim of this was to remind staff of their professional responsibilities to read and be familiar with the content. They were sent out over 5 months, one per
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