Decision time
Author: Alison Newton & Linzie Priestnall
Magazine issue: Spring 08
Page numbers: E1-E3
Date: 29 February 2008
URL: /content/files/Spr08SLTiPANewtonLPriestnall.pdf
Communicating Quality 3 recommends that departments develop explicit prioritisation policies. This helps newly qualified therapists develop their skills, and more experienced therapists reflect on their decision making. Alison Newton & Linzie Priestnall led a process enabling therapists in the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust to ‘think aloud’ their reasoning around prioritisation of adult inpatients referred to speech and language therapy. This evaluation process provided a qualitatively rich information template for building a policy, which was then strengthened through information from research papers, Trust policies and national guidelines. Alison and Linzie explain how the new policy works in practice and how it has since been successfully implemented in another Trust.
