Clinical Governance Standards
| Term | Definition |
| Accessible and timely | ensuring people can access care when and where they need it. |
| Adverse event | an event that could have caused, or did result in, harm to people, including death, disability, injury, disease or suffering and/or immediate or delayed emotional reaction or psychological harm. |
| Care partner | refers to any person or representative the individual wishes to be involved in their care. This may be a friend, neighbour, family member or other person who may provide informal help or support. |
| Clinical risk | refers to the potential for harm which may result from decision making, clinical investigation, treatment or care. Harm includes impact on a person, their wellbeing or healthcare experience. This could arise from gaps in processes, procedures or guidance, failure to provide appropriate staffing and training or failure to comply with clinical care requirements, including regulation. |
| Clinical supervision | in the NHS, a formal process for supporting the development of registered healthcare professionals through a combination of reflection, case review and feedback. It helps staff manage work-related stress, enhance skills, improve patient care and meet professional requirements for CPD. Supervision is a structured way for staff to discuss their practice, challenges and achievements in a confidential environment. |
| Effective | providing care based on evidence and which results in positive outcomes. |
| Equitable | providing care that delivers equity of outcomes for everyone and that recognises the different needs of protected characteristics. |
| Human rights | Human rights in the UK are protected by the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the rights from the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. This Act obliges public authorities like NHS Scotland, the Care Inspectorate, government, police and local councils to treat everyone fairly, with dignity and in accordance with these rights. These rights include the right to life, freedom from torture, a fair trial and respect for private life. Anyone in the UK, regardless of citizenship, can use the Act to defend their rights in UK courts.
All public sector bodies have duties to respect, protect and fulfil the rights that people have under the Human Rights Act 1998 when carrying out our functions. They also have duties to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different groups under the Equality Act 2010. |
| Near miss | any event that could potentially have caused harm. |
| Organisation | refers to all health and social care providers or services that provide or have oversight of clinical care. |
| Person-centred and personalised | providing care that responds to individual needs and preferences and that ensures individuals are partners in its planning and delivery. |
| Primary care | is community-based services provided by healthcare staff, including GPs and community nurses. |
| Quality | in relation to healthcare refers to care that is person-centred, safe, effective, efficient, equitable and timely, in line with the Institute of Medicine’s six domains of quality. |
| Quality management system | is a coordinated and interconnected approach to planning, improving, maintaining and assuring high-quality care applied across all levels of an organisation. |
| Safe | is when the care people receive does not harm them and people using healthcare services feel safe |
| Safety | refers to the absence of preventable harm to a patient. It includes the reduction of the risk of healthcare-associated and unnecessary harm to an acceptable minimum. |
| Skills mix | is the range of competencies possessed by an individual healthcare worker, the ratio of senior to junior staff within a particular discipline and the mix of different types of staff in a team or healthcare setting. |
| Staff |
refers to people who are employed to provide healthcare support to an individual. It includes, but is not limited to, those defined in the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. This includes locum staff, volunteers, contracted staff, those covered by reciprocal work arrangements and students on placement. |
| Trauma-informed |
is a way of working and delivering services that recognises that a person may have experienced trauma and that understands the effects that trauma may have on them. For healthcare services, it involves adapting processes and practices, based on this understanding of the effects of trauma, and seeks to avoid, or minimise, the risk of exposing the person to any recurrence of past trauma or further trauma. A trauma-informed service will be able to demonstrate the ways in which it has been informed by feedback from people with living and lived experience of trauma. A trauma-informed system also supports workforce resilience and is supported by trauma-informed leadership and systems. |
| Vicarious trauma | is the emotional and psychological impact that occurs from repeatedly hearing about or witnessing the trauma of others. |
| Whistleblowing | is when a person who delivers services or used to deliver services on behalf of a health service body, family health service provider or independent provider (as defined in section 23 of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002) raises a concern that relates to speaking up in the public interest about an NHS service where an act or omission has created, or may create, a risk of harm or wrong doing. |