Biography
Tracy Ruthven
Tracy Ruthven joined the NHS in 1994 and initially worked for the clinical audit team at North Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. In 1997 she became Clinical Interface Audit Co-ordinator for Leicestershire Fosse NHS Trust before being appointed Deputy Manager at Leicestershire Primary Care Audit Group in 2000.
Tracy joined the NHS with a degree in English and Sociology from Keele University and was awarded a distinction in 1997 upon completing Leicester University’s Certificate in Clinical Audit Support. In the same year Tracy was also awarded a Diploma in Health and Social Welfare from the Open University. In 2006 Tracy graduated from the University of Birmingham with an MSc in Managing Quality in Healthcare.
Tracy has been involved in the delivery of training and education for over 10 years and is a renowned expert in this field. She holds a teaching qualification and currently acts as a moderator for a national academic organisation to quality assure a range of healthcare related courses. In 2004, Tracy collaborated with colleagues at PCAG on “Teaching Clinical Audit the PCAG Way”, a resource pack that over 100 NHS Trusts now utilise to support local audit training programmes. In 2005/6, Tracy helped develop online training materials for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
In addition to delivering training in quality assurance, Tracy has vast experience co-ordinating large complex multi-practice audit projects. During her time at PCAG, she also had responsibility for co-ordinating the delivery of interface audit projects across Leicestershire and is a leading authority on interface audit. Tracy has considerable experience in motivating community-based staff to take part in clinical audit projects. In 2006 the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors cited a Breastfeeding Audit that she facilitated as an example of best practice and this has been published on the CPHVA/Amicus website.
Over the last ten years Tracy has contributed to many healthcare journals and her articles have appeared in a wide range of publications, including – The Pharmaceutical Journal, British Journal of Community Nursing, Quality in Primary Care and Clinical Governance Bulletin. In 2005 Tracy was successful in submitting an abstract to the International Society for in Healthcare and subsequently presented at the conference in Vancouver.
Away from work Tracy and her husband Ian enjoy travelling and have recently completed renovating their Edwardian house. Tracy also devotes her spare time to working with children and young adults. Since 2001 she has served as a mentor for 16-18 year olds on the Leicestershire Education Business Company scheme and she also works with business students at De Montfort University.