Glossary of terms used in the clinical governance information and framework
| Activities (associated with policies or procedures) | Specific tasks, tools or undertakings that are used for certain purposes, or to achieve certain ends. For example, peer review, clinical notes audit. |
| Clinical governance | A whole-of-organisation approach to continuously improving the quality of services to protect safety and wellbeing of, and outcomes for, the person, whānau, and staff, and enhance the quality of care provided and experienced. It involves systematically joining-up all safety, quality maintenance and improvement efforts within or across health care organisations.1,3,5,7,8,1 |
| Clinical governance framework | A structure that guides how we think about, plan, and deliver services and care, so that safety, well being and outcomes, and the quality of care and services, can be monitored and enhanced.1,3,5,7,27 The framework provides the whole-of-organisation approach. |
| Clinician | A trained healthcare professional (e.g., a physiotherapist) who spends at least some of their time providing direct clinical care.3 |
| Organisational systems and processes | The entirety of the organisation’s efforts to achieve the purpose of clinical governance, and the organisation’s features that support these efforts; comprising the organisation’s structures and resources, policies and procedures, and actions and behaviours. |
| Outcomes | Clinical and other health outcomes |
| Person | The individual who has a therapeutic or professional relationship with a physiotherapist”4 |
| Policy | A written statement that clearly indicates the position and values of the organisation on a given subject and which regulates and guides organisational action.5,7,3 |
| Procedure | A written set of instructions that describe the approved and recommended steps for a particular act or sequence of events.5,7,3 |
| Resources / resourcing | ‘Resources’ and ‘resourcing’ are meant broadly, and include financial, facilities, people, tools, equipment, consumables, and information and communications technology and other infrastructure. |
| Safety and well being | ‘Safety and well being’ are meant in a holistic sense, that is, the physical, psychological, cultural, spiritual, and social safety and well being of those involved. |
| Staff | ‘Staff’ refer to those who carry out work in any capacity for the organisation; include employees, contractors, sub-contractors, assistants, students, those doing work experience, and volunteers.41 |
| Structures | The formal roles, reporting lines, responsibilities, committees, and teams, within—or working under the auspices of—an organisation. That is, how the organisation is structured. |
| Systems and processes | See Organisational systems and processes |
| Whānau | “Whānau are those to whom the person relates in terms of shared experiences, values and beliefs. The people and relationships that comprise a person’s whanau may be lifelong, or time-limited and specific to the person’s life circumstances.”4 |
Note: superscript numerals in the above text denote references cited.