SBA — Single Best Answer · Review
Question 635
Clinical Management → Clinical Practice
Classification
Question
SSBAQuestion Header
Clinical audit or research
Question Stem
A maternity department reviews routine local data against predefined standards, identifies deficiencies, implements change and plans to repeat the review. Which feature most clearly identifies this activity as audit rather than research?
Options
A
Its findings are intended to be generalisable
B
It depends on complex, unique data
C
It is a stand-alone investigation
D
It determines whether the right thing is being done through a cyclical process of review and improvement
E
Its primary purpose is to discover and define the right thing to do
Explanation
research, which discovers or defines the right thing and is generally stand-alone and generalisable, with audit, which determines whether the right thing is being done. Audit is cyclical: care is reviewed against standards, change is implemented and re-audit assesses improvement.
Option Validity
A) research is generalisable, whereas audit is not generalisable.
B) Complex or unique data are associated with research; audit commonly uses routine data.
C) Research is described as stand-alone, while audit is cyclical.
E) research discovers or defines the right thing to do; audit checks whether the right thing is being done.
Further Reading
Saxena MRCOG-1 Basic Sciences — Principles of Clinical Practice, printed p. 5.