Case Study – Clinical Knowledge Publisher

Case study provided by Amanda Minns, Knowledge Services Manager, NHS Lanarkshire

Project outline: 

Part of NHS Education for Scotland’s Knowledge into Action for Scotland’s Health and Social Services Strategy focussed on the support for translating knowledge into practice. The Clinical Knowledge Publisher (CKP) tool was designed to facilitate ‘actionable knowledge’ strand of the strategy by improving access to clinical evidence, guidelines and protocols. Within Lanarkshire, the Cancer Strategy identified as one of its aims the requirement to ‘improve the standardisation, dissemination and maintenance of local pathways’, specifically within the 9 tumour groups. Knowledge Services were able to offer assistance using the CKP to achieve this aim. Following this, the software has been used by other departments with similar aims regarding their pathways, such as the Foot & Ankle team and the NMAHP Practice Development team who engaged Knowledge Services to translate the Universal Health Visitor’s Pathway into the software. The project supports the 2020 Vision in that it allows the sharing of the pathways and all their content across all sectors of health and social care. The unified, consistent approach improves both quality and access to information. The Living With & Beyond Cancer pathway has been designed to be shared with patients so that they can use this information throughout their care journey. In order to ensure engagement, consultation with pathway authors was required to identify existing pathways to be transferred or the creation of new pathways. Departments construct and evaluate their pathways within their own teams. Following this, the sourcing of relevant supporting evidence to be embedded within the pathway was completed. The pathways are then submitted to local management teams for endorsement. The Health Visitor Pathway was previewed by the lead nurses before being presented to a locality group to test its functionality. If the feedback is successful it will then be introduced across the board. The feedback so far for all electronic pathways created by NHS Lanarkshire’s Knowledge Services has been very positive, showing that they provide ease of access to information and evidence as well as facilitating training and ongoing professional development.

Quote from service user: 

“This software has been used by multiple teams including Foot & Ankle, Dietetics, Quality and Cancer. Each tam has been able to design their own pathway with the help of Knowledge Services, and link to multiple resources for ease of access.”

Quote from staff member: 

“This project allowed the team to work closely with clinical colleagues and build resources that help them help patients. Knowledge Services doesn’t often see the direct link to patient care but this software has allowed us to see how having online up-to-date resources can make a direct impact on the care patient receive.”