Significant events, complaints and compliments
What is a patient safety incident?
National Patient Safety AgencyAny complaints or compliments which you receive throughout the year should be anonymised, logged and reviewed as part of the appraisal process. Your appraiser will be interested in what actions you took as a result of the complaint and any modification to your practice that resulted from it. Discussion at appraisal should highlight areas for further learning, which should then be included in your Personal Development Plan (PDP) and CPD.
A significant event is any unintended or unexpected event, which could or did lead to harm of one or more patients.
In preparation for your appraisal, you will be asked to log any significant events which have occurred throughout the year. This should include incidents which did not cause harm but could have done, or where the event should have been prevented. If you have recorded any significant incidents during the year at your appraisal discussion, the focus should be on any learning from errors, developing solutions and implementing any improvements. It is the content of what you learnt from the significant event, rather than the number of them, which will be of importance at appraisal.
