Student selected component (ssc)

Most students will wish to complete a primary care audit and we hope your practice will be able to support this. Our marking team will provide feedback on an audit proposal form and mark the final audit report.

Key information relating to SSC 3 :

Students can complete a clinical audit on any topic. There must be is a guideline from which audit criteria and standards can be generated. Consider having a list of suggested audit topics ready for the start of the placement or asking the student(s) to complete a specific audit.

Students are only required to complete 1 cycle of audit. Subsequent students may complete the second cycle with time between for your practice to put in place recommendations.
Audits are limited to 2-3 criteria, and no more than 50 case notes. This helps to standardise the workload for students. There is no penalty for being over or under these suggested numbers. Some audits are straightforward and can accommodate more criteria.
Audits on rarer events have small numbers and can be interesting but please discourage students from completing audits where there only a handful of patients as this may be of limited benefit to the student and Practice and inhibit them from drawing meaningful conclusions.
Audits may get supervised by other clinical members of the practice team e.g., Nurse, Clinical Pharmacist. A meeting should be held at the beginning of the audit in week 1-2 and then again between week 6-8. These 2 meetings should get planned at initial contact with the student.
Students may get given time within the GP day to work on their audits. Planning and completing the audit registration form should take no longer than 1 session. Data collection should take no longer than 2 sessions. The students have plenty of time outside of the placements to work on their audits and should not miss clinical activities.
Students will need help with the searches. They must sit with a member of your team to do this as it is a valuable learning opportunity. It helps the students to understand how to write measurable criteria, and to adapt criteria if searches are not working.
It would be helpful for the students to present their audits and receive feedback on their recommendations from the wider team. Please schedule this in for them when they first attend. This will help them to write SMART recommendations which are more likely to get implemented.

Our support

Students have access to support from the SCC team via email, Teams or in person.
We are available to supervisors via email and Teams, especially if a student is struggling or needs extra support.
Audit reports get shared with practices to support requirements for CQC and Quality Improvement.
We are happy to support students and practices to submit abstracts for conferences or publication. If two cycles are completed over two students, the students could work together on this, as it is not part of the assessment.
Practices will receive a certificate of participation in UCLan audit.

Thank you for supporting our students with SSC3.

SSC 3 suggested audits

Below is a list of audits previously completed for SSC 3. Many are based on NICE guidance, some on other national or local guidelines.

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Cardiovascular

Atrial fibrillation:

DOAC monitoring
CHA2DS2-VASc scoring
Bleeding risk assessment
Amiodarone monitoring

Hypertension:

Diagnosis in primary care
Assessment and management of stage 2 hypertension
Investigation of end organ damage

ACS:

High dose statin prescribing and monitoring post-MI
Titration of b-blockers and ACEi post-MI
Dual antiplatelet therapy

Heart failure:

Investigation of acute heart failure
Titration of b-blockers and ACEi/ARB in HFrEF
Eplenarone monitoring
Diagnosis of HFpEF

Endocrinology

Diabetes:

Medication for T2DMMonitoring of metformin and gliclazide
Annual review of patients with T2DM
Management of new diagnosis of T2DM
Monitoring of patients with T1DM
Management of pain in diabetic neuropathy
Management of diabetic nephropathy

Thyroid disease:

Monitoring of carbimazole
Management of new diagnosis of hypothyroidism
Monitoring of hypothyroidism

Osteoporosis:

Assessment of fracture risk
Assessment of bone health in premature menopause

Gastroenterology:

Management of Barrett’s oesophagus
Management of NAFLD
Eradication therapy for H pylori
Management of Coeliac disease

Respiratory

COPD:

Management of exacerbations
Management following acute exacerbation
Annual review in primary care
Appropriate use of corticosteroids
Appropriate use of LTOT

Asthma:

Appropriate use of corticosteroids
Monitoring of asthma control
Smoking cessation advice
Recording of occupational health history

Neurology:

- Triptan prescribing for headaches
- Annual epilepsy review
- Sodium valproate prescribing in women of child-bearing potential

Women’s health

Preconception counselling about folic acid
COC prescribing with respect to smoking
Follow-up of gestational diabetes
Follow-up after medical TOP
Post-natal follow-up in primary care
HRT monitoring

Rheumatology:

Management of gout
Monitoring of methotrexate

Health prevention / Public health:

Advice to patients with raised BMI
Cervical screening
Cervical screening in women with learning disability
Health checks for patients with learning disability

Mental health

Lithium monitoring
Olanzapine monitoring
Physical health monitoring in patients with schizophrenia
Management of depression
Autistic spectrum pathway
Benzodiazepine prescribing

Renal Medicine and Urology:

Use of KDIGO guidelines for classification of CK
Monitoring of patients with CKD
Diagnosis and management of UTI

Elderly medicine:

Recording frailty
Annual dementia review
Adherence to Gold Standard Framework Guidelines for patients in the last year of life.

Child health

Management of childhood eczema
Antibiotics for tonsillitis

Therapeutics:

Opioids for non-cancer pain
PPis for patients on long term antiplatelet medications
Monitoring of long-term tetracyclines