Hosting local content with the Digital Learning Solutions team is an option open to any health and social care organisation.

Local content can be hosted and delivered seamlessly alongside the existing free Digital Learning Solutions core content.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are using this solution to host their Doctor’s induction and in this case study Steve Mansell (Deputy IT Training Manager) tells us about the approach the team took and how this change has been received within the organisation.

Tell us about your organisation and your responsibilities?

“The Worcester Acute Hospitals Trust employs over 6,000 staff across three hospital sites; Worcester Royal Hospital, Alexandra Hospital Redditch and Kidderminster Hospital. The ICT Training team train the majority of clinical systems to members of staff (clinical and non-clinical) across the three sites, via trainer led classroom sessions, bespoke training sessions and now through e-learning modules that the user can access from both inside and outside of the Trust.” 

Tell us about the situation before at your organisation?

“Previously the IT trainers would demonstrate the Clinical systems to the Junior Doctors in the lecture theatres, with very little hands on training. This would involve the whole training team across 2 of the 3 sites and would take 3 days for the FY1’s and 3 days for the FY2’s; in total equating to 30 days of trainer’s time. Taking into account that this would also impact on the Junior Doctors being away from the wards and the feedback received from previous years, Medical Education instigated a meeting to discuss the way forward.” 

What did you do to change this?

“As mentioned, the Doctor’s induction had previously required huge resources from both the Training Team and the booking of rooms and lecture theatres for the training to take place.

The ICT Training team have now produced in-house Captivate e-learning modules and competency assessments that are hosted on the Digital Learning Solutions Tracking System and can be accessed inside and outside of the Trust.

The Doctors are now able to complete all of their Clinical System training prior to starting with the Trust and, for the first time we as a Trust, are able to assess their competency using the systems by the use of Competency Assessment at the end of their e-learning. This has had a positive impact on patient care as now the Doctors are able to get on to the wards much quicker.”

Tell us about the project and how you are now delivering the training?

“The e-learning modules are hosted on the Tracking System alongside the core standard IT skills learning and can be completed prior to the Junior Doctor’s start date at the Trust.

The Tracking System content is available to all members of staff and is not only used to host the clinical systems training, but also allows everyone to become more proficient in Microsoft Office (i.e. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). There are several stages for each module, designed to target all members of staff and their varying skill levels.”

This new approach on how we train our FY1 and FY2 Doctors, has not only been greatly welcomed by the Doctors themselves, but has also had a positive impact on the Training and Medical Education Teams. This new approach means that less resources are required from both departments, and also gets the Doctors on to the wards much quicker in order to carry out their duties.

What support did you receive from the Digital Learning Solutions team?

“The team received WebEx training followed up with Tracking System ticket support where we could ask questions, raise queries, log any faults and raise suggestions. Once we started publishing content there were a few technical issues but after logging a support call the team were available to discuss my issues which were either resolved or logged as suggestions. The training provided gave us confidence to start using the systems and the support that Carolyn Mawdesley and the team gave us was truly amazing.” 

What are the benefits to your organisation of hosting local content?

“Initial feedback from the Junior Doctors has been very positive; they all seem to like this hands on approach to learning the clinical systems and prefer this to having the systems demonstrated to them in a lecture theatre environment. Medical Education has also found this approach less time consuming for them. We have been able to demonstrate, through reporting from the Tracking System, that the Doctors have completed all of their learning and gained competency in all of the clinical systems. It has also meant that the Doctors are able to get on to the wards much quicker in order for them to shadow their colleagues. The IT Training team have seen a huge reduction in the amount of trainer resource required and this has allowed trainers to support other projects such as the PF/ICE integration.” 

May I extend my thanks to you and your team and everyone involved in this fantastic project and bringing it to fruition, what a  fabulous achievement. Well done everyone, I think you should advertise this widely within the trust.

What are the next steps for you and your organisation?

“NHS Digital are so impressed with the Trust’s performance they have asked to showcase us in order to raise our profile, gain acknowledgement and share good practice and benefits with other Trusts and their training teams. This will be published on their external website.

We have also had some further exciting news from NHS Digital: Worcestershire Acute Hospital Trust is now number 1 on the leader board in the West Midlands for using the Tracking System and number 6 in the country (previously we did not even show in the Top 10 for the West Midlands not to mention nationally!).

There are exciting times ahead for us as a Trust as we now take this new style of training and assessing competency to the next level. In January 2019 we will be using this training approach for all our New Starters joining the Trust to carry out their induction training for the Clinical Systems that has been designed for all job roles.”

Hosting online content is part of the Digital Learning Solutions “Premium” solution which provides organisations with enhanced hosting and content development at an additional fixed charge. For more information about the products and services available from IT Skills Pathway , please email us at it.skills@nhs.net.