Aims To assess if paediatric undergraduate students can improve their knowledge and understanding of clinical governance when undertaking an audit as part of their clinical placement.

Methods The students were broken into 2 groups (2–3 in each group). Each group was given a topic to assess (growth charts and post-take ward round documentation) and asked to design a prospectus. A 10 chart audit was undertaken and the results presented to the clinical team. This project will ran from August 2013 until Jan 2014.

A questionnaire was filled out at the start and at the end of the placement and used as an indicator of the student’s progress. The questionnaire comprised of yes and no answers as well as a rating scale from 1–5.

Results No student had undertaken an audit or quality improvement project previously (n = 17).

The students rated their undergraduate teaching in clinical governance a mean mark of 1.6 (self-rating scale marked 1–5).

There was an increased in mean score regarding their understanding of clinical governance (pre 2, post 3.2), understanding of the audit cycle (pre 1.9, post 3.9) and in the importance of clinician governance in modern medicine (pre 3.5, post 4.3).

All students (100%) felt this project helped improve their c.v. and that it would be beneficial for all undergraduates to participate in an audit.

Conclusions The results identified a self-rated improvement in knowledge of clinical governance and the audit cycle as well as support for undergraduates undertaking a quality improvement project.