This book is aimed at all those who want to improve the quality of the medical care they provide. Whether you are a nurse, doctor, manager, healthcare assistant, student or laboratory technician, this book will show you how to examine the quality of the care you provide through criterion-based audit. In this process, you will decide what you should be doing in any circumstance, examine whether or not you are doing it and then look for ways of improving your care until you are doing it correctly. It has been likened to ‘holding up a mirror’ to your clinical practice. The process is simple, free and effective. It can be carried out by anyone who wants to provide better medical care.

Although we all wish that we could provide better care it is frequently seen as someone else's problem. How often have we heard colleagues say “The care in this hospital is terrible: I wish someone would sort it out” or “If only we had the right sort of managers (or equipment, or government, or system), then our healthcare centre could be so much better”? Although it is true that leaders have a responsibility to do their best, we healthcare providers also have that responsibility. We may not have the money to buy the new expensive equipment that we want or the power to change things radically at policy level but we can all make changes in our own practice.