Like Driving a Car- Quality Control

A response to the Like Driving a Car Activity
created by Danielle Menezes (@dmenezes)

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Like Driving a Car- Quality Control
Learning quality control practices is a step by step process.
1) Theory: Learning the basics or the rules of the road. In the same fashion, Westgard rules are the basis of learning about the rules of quality control, standard deviation, CV and target mean.
2) Rules and guidelines: following the rules and guidelines laid out in Westgard rules to understand and monitor precision and accuracy of lab test results. This ultimately lays out the reliability of patient results.
3) Application: The next step is to apply the theory, making real time decisions on the rules, ensuring validity of the instruments to perform patient testing. Providing the students with examples of different QC trends can allow them to apply the theory they learned.
4) Troubleshooting: Invalid QC needs to have a follow up. This can involve troubleshooting the analyzer, the material or reagent that the test was analyzed. By doing so, patient clinical testing can continue.
5) Responsibility and accountability: MLTs are responsible for the quality of patient results, including following the rules and applying QC protocols to ensure accuracy of results reported.