JUNIOR DOCTORS AND CLINICAL AUDIT

Objectives: to assess the extent of junior doctor involvement in clini cal audit, the degree of support from audit staff, and the perceived v alue of the resulting audits. Design: postal survey of National Health Service (NHS) junior doctors. Subjects and settings: 704 junior docto rs in central Leeds hospitals, June 1996. Results: questionnaires were returned by 232 respondents (33%), 211 (31%) were completed; 157 resp ondents (74%) had personally performed audit. Mean (+/- SD) duration s ince last audit project was 14.9 (14.1) (range 0-84) months. Of the re spondents who had personally performed audit, 88 (56%) did not use the hospital audit department, 60 (38%) received no guidance and only 19 (12%) were involved in re-auditing the same project. Mean (+/- SD) tim e spent per audit project was 27.8 (37.7), (range 2-212) hours. Sevent y-five junior doctors (48%) were aware of subsequent change in clinica l practice, 41 (26%) perceived a negative personal benefit from audit, 33 (21%) perceived a negative departmental benefit, and 42 (27%) felt that audit was a waste of time. Conclusions: a large proportion of ju nior doctors are involved in audit projects that do not conform to est ablished good practice and which have a low impact on clinical behavio ur. Although junior doctors feel that there is inadequate assistance a nd poor supervision whilst performing audit, they still support the pr inciple of audit. There is a need to improve the quality and supervisi on of audit projects performed by junior doctors.