The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

Aiming for Excellence

What is Aiming for Excellence?

Aiming for Excellence is the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners’ standard for general practice. It contains indicators and criteria that identify minimum legal and safety standards and those that pose significant risk as defined by the College. These reflect a sample of quality measurements considered important by all stakeholders, including patients. Each indicator has been designed to consider patients first.

There are four sections in Aiming for Excellence

1. Patient experience and equity
2. Practice environment and safety
3. Clinical effectiveness processes
4. Professional development

Together they define the RNZCGP expectation for the quality of general practice care in New Zealand.

Aiming for Excellence - RNZCGP Standard for New Zealand General Practice (PDF, 900 KB)

What are these measurements?

The standards are a mark of success and specify the acceptable level of care.

Indicators help practices compare their level of performance against a set measurement. They provide points along the way to meeting a standard by identifying measureable elements of practice performance. They are based on evidence or consensus to show they can be used and produce a positive change in quality of care.

Together, the indicators define the RNZCGP standard for general practice in New Zealand.

The previous edition of Aiming for Excellence is also available for download.

Aiming for Excellence – Raising the bar in general practice

To continuously maintain and improve high standards of general practice care, the College commits to the principle of putting patients first. To do that, its tools and processes use the best information available and are designed by those who work in and use general practice services.

Aiming for Excellence is used by general practice teams and the CORNERSTONE General Practice Accreditation Programme to assess quality in general practices. The publication also identifies other standards considered essential by the College to guide further improvements in practice systems and clinical care.

Together Aiming for Excellence and CORNERSTONE meet the requirements of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 for the development, use and monitoring of a nationally consistent standard and quality improvement programme for general practices services and patient safety.

Cultural Competence

RNZCGP Cultural Competence resource aims to provide a framework and guideline to assist general practitioners (GPs) to create and/or maintain culturally competent practices in New Zealand.

It is important to define just what we mean by culture and cultural competency. Definitions of culture are often confused by using terminology such as race and ethnicity. But a basic definition of culture reveals a far broader understanding.

One definition of culture is:
The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population and can be expressed in intellectual and artistic activity and in the works produced by the culture or cultural group.

Culture is essentially a convenient way of describing the ways members of a group understand each other and communicate that understanding. More often than not, the nuances of meaning are generated by behaviour rather than words, and much of the interaction between members is determined by shared values operating at an unconscious or taken for granted level. Many groups have their own distinctive culture: the elderly, the poor, professional groups, gangs, the army.

In terms of New Zealand's population, there are many cultures to be aware of and they are not necessarily based on one's ethnicity, race, nationality or religion.

RNZCGP's Cultural Competence resource provides advice for GPs to create and maintain culturally competent general practices in New Zealand. An electronic copy of this resource is available for members.