SBA — Single Best Answer · Review
Question 630
Clinical Management → Clinical Practice
Classification
Question
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Audit cycle
Question Stem
An audit team has identified standards and collected and analysed its data. The comparison shows areas in which care should improve. What is the next step in the audit cycle?
Options
A
Begin a new needs assessment
B
Replace the standards before acting
C
Present the results and make recommendations or implement change
D
Proceed directly to re-audit without change
E
Convert the project into research
Explanation
the audit cycle as initial needs assessment, identification of standards, data collection and analysis, recommendations and implementation of change after comparison with the standards, and finally re-audit.
Option Validity
A) Needs assessment is the first stage; it has already been completed in this scenario.
B) The standards have already been identified and are used for comparison rather than replaced at this stage.
D) Re-audit follows recommendations and implementation of change; it is not the immediate next step.
E) Audit remains a cyclical quality-improvement process and does not become research at this stage.
Further Reading
Saxena MRCOG-1 Basic Sciences — Principles of Clinical Practice, printed p. 5.