Not just ‘NICE’ enough

When I started my role in NICE as a medical technology implementation manager in the adoption and impact team at NICE (www.nice.org.uk/adoption-team) my eyes were opened to the different ways in which AHPs could and should become involved with NICE guidelines and quality standards. 

 

Clinicians and frontline staff are in a position to offer a wealth of knowledge and provide a real world view of current clinical practice, which is important for the development of NICE guidelines. During guideline development, the draft guidance is publicly consulted on and this is an opportunity for clinicians to put forward comments via national organisations such as the CSP (www.nice.org.uk/get-involved/stakeholder-registration). 

 

The comments are considered by the guideline development committee and may result, in some instances, in an amendment to the final guidance. 

 

There are various ways to share your knowledge of new or reviewed NICE guidelines and it is a great CPD activity.  Why not share what you know, and examples of, local quality improvement and audit? NICE has a shared learning database  detailing examples of good practice, and showing how NICE guidance has been implemented. Thanks to the tweets from @theCSP, @physiotalk, @weAHPs and @NICEcomms I have a greater appreciation of the power of social media for sharing learning and CPD activities.

 

NICE guidelines cross many disciplines and offer a great platform for reviewing interdisciplinary working and service development at different levels in the organisation. The NICE quality standard service improvement template (www.nice.org.uk/measuring-uptake) offers clinicians a tailored approach to assessing and monitoring service improvement, using quality standards. This template offers a great way to identify what areas to consider for service improvement.

 

My message is get involved, help shape and share NICE guidelines, and use NICE tools to monitor your service.