A7: Good scientific and clinical practice

• A7.1 The principles of good practice in scientific and clinical settings: 

  Throughout healthcare, the main adjectives they all must aim to achieve are: 

  • Consistency
  • Predictability
  • Reproducibility
  • Reliability

  We can achieve these objectives in several ways, but they all share these common principles: 

  • Using standard operating procedures (SOPs) 
  • Effectively managing calibration and maintenance of equipment and work areas 
  • Effectively managing stock 
  • Appropriately storing products, materials and equipment 
• A7.2 What a SOP is: 

  A standard operating procedure or SOP is a set of sequential steps or instructions designed to standardise the approach to a process or action. 
•  A7.3 Why it is important for everyone to follow SOPs:

  • Maintaining health and safety
  • Enabling consistency of approach 
  • Meeting any legal or organisational requirements 
  • Upholding professional standards 
  • Demonstrating compliance for audit purposes 
• A7.4 How to access SOPs for a given activity: 

  • Carrying out detailed index searches (for example via intranet/manual) 
  • Completing detailed staff induction and ongoing training 
  • Ensuring the SOP is the most up-to-date version 
  • Ensuring all relevant documentation has been completed and signed
•  A7.5 The potential impacts of not regularly cleaning and preparing work areas for use: 

  • Risks to health and safety: 
  • spread of infection 
  • production of toxic/dangerous by-products 
  • Invalid results: 
  • contamination or cross-contamination (for example environmental, samples, reagents, DNA) 
  • Inefficient working practices: 
  • leads to increased costs and timescales 
  • Damage to equipment: 
  • leads to increased costs and timescales
• A7.6 The potential impacts of not maintaining, cleaning and servicing equipment:

  • Risks to health and safety: 
  • increased risk of injury 
  • spread of infection 
  • Invalid results: 
  • contamination or cross-contamination (for example environmental, samples, reagents) 
  • Reduced function of equipment: 
  • decreased lifespan of equipment 
  • increased cost and timescales (for example equipment needing repair or being out of service) 
• A7.7 Why it is important to calibrate and test equipment to ensure it is fit for use: 

  • Ensuring accuracy of measurements 
  • Prolonging the life of equipment 
  • Meeting legal requirements
• How to escalate concerns if equipment is not correctly calibrated/unsuitable for intended use

  1. Taking the equipment out of action

  2. Labelling the equipment as being out of use, if appropriate

  3. Reporting concerns to the relevant person, in line with organisational policies and procedures

  4. Recording concerns according to organisational procedures
• Why it is important to order and manage stock

  • Ensuring sufficient supply of required consumables and materials
  • Ensuring that materials are used before their expiry date
  • Reducing the costs of excess stock
  • Improving efficiency
  • Improving productivity
  • Ensure safety of stock (bottles aren't damaged/degraded)
• Potential consequences of incorrectly storing products, materials and equipment

  • Cross-contamination
  • Breakdown of limited stability products
  • Products exceeding expiry dates
  • Loss of samples or degradation of reagents not stored at the correct temperature (-20°C, -4°C, 4°C or room temperature)
  • Risks to health and safety (for example spread of infection, release of dangerous chemicals or heavy items not stored at correct height)
  • Stock is difficult to locate
  • Financial loss