CLINICAL ACTIVITIES AUDIT: A Useful Tool for Changing Clinicians’ Practice

Introduction: Continuing professional education activities such as professional conferences and passive dissemination of literature appear to have no little or no impact on changing clinicians’ practice. A clinical activities audit was carried out with a group (44) of chiropractors and osteopaths as part of the Chiropractic and Osteopathic College of Australasia’s continuing professional development program to determine whether it was likely to generate improvement in practice. Methods: The participants gathered data relating to six audit criteria on ten patient records in round 1 and ten in round 2 (six months later). Each participant received a learning guide relating to useful clinical tools for pain and disability measurement immediately after completing the first round. The audit criteria relate to: methods used to assess the site and severity of pain, methods used to assess disability, other investigations performed or ordered, referrals made and outcome measures used for pain and disability. The data were analysed to determine whether the participants increased their use of objective pain and disability and outcome measures over the course of the audit. Results: Results of the first round of audit were compared with those of the second round. Practitioners’ use of objective measures of pain and disability and outcome measures was significantly higher in the second round of audit. Conclusion: This indicates that this clinical activities audit is a useful tool for improving practice.