Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 522-2023
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find our response below.
This request relates specifically to the training if any. that the Trust provides to its clinical staff, for example nurses, in how to correctly use medical devices.
Medical Device equals A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. For the purposes of this query, examples such as Anaesthetic machine, patient monitor, Infusion device, ECG Machine, defibrillator, thermometers, etc. 1. Do employees at the trust undertake clinical end user training for medical devices?
Yes
2. Which departments or employee titles are required to undertake medical device end user training?
The department and job roles that are required to undertake training varies considerable based on the specific medical device. It is not possible to detail all of this as we have over 11,000 items of medical equipment and 5,500 staff. But in general terms the departments include:
• Mental health in-patient wards
• Physical health community hospital wards
• Community based staff in a range of different services e.g. district nurses.
• Minor Injury and Illness Units MIIUs.
• Children and Young People’s Services
In terms of job roles, this will include:
• Registered nurses
• Healthcare Support Workers across a wide range of services.
• Allied Health Professionals – Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Therapists etc
• Facilities Staff, including Porters and Housekeepers. And in fact, all our staff have to undertake Resuscitation Training at Level 1 or above which includes awareness of the use of Defibrillators. 3. How is the training provided?
• Online/E-learning
• In person • Combination of online & in person • Other please state.
The training takes a number of forms but is mainly a combination of online and in person training. 4. Who provides/ produces the training?
• Manufacturer
• Someone directly employed by the trust please provide job title.
• A third party please provide the name of the provider. • Other please state.
Training is provided in a range of ways, too many to list separately. Some is provided by in-house trainers Resuscitation and AED training for example.; some is by e-learning, either externally procured or developed in-house; some takes the form of Action Cards and/or Guides and some is provided by the manufacturer in some cases as initial training but then continued by in-house provision. 5. What types of medical devices are subject to such end user training? All devices are subject to training if end user needs to be confident and competent to use; if this is a manufacturers recommendation or to meet compliance within the trust.
6. If the training is online/e-learning, what Learning Management System LMS. does the Trust use for employee training? Examples: Moodle, Totara, Mindflash, Google Classroom
The Trust uses Totara, a Moodle-based LMS
7. If you do use Learning Management Software, does it enable managers to see whether their staff are up to date with training? Yes, our LMS provides real-time compliance data to managers and others.. 8. Is annual recertification of competence managed manually, or does your Learning Management System automatically send reminders and allocate the appropriate courses to users? Our LMS sends automated reminders to staff who need to refresh training and allocates courses to users based on their given training profiles. Some of the refreshers are annual and others have different refresher periods. 9. How much funding has the trust allocated to e-Learning in the past year?
No specific amount has been allocated to e-learning. We have access to some free e-learning content, we buy in ClinicalSkills.net; we develop some in-house and we buy what we cannot obtain by one of these other routes.
FOI Request
I would be most grateful if you would provide me, under the Freedom of Information Act, details in respect to your NHS Trust, please see the questions below:
This request relates specifically to the training if any. that the Trust provides to its clinical staff, for example nurses, in how to correctly use medical devices.
Medical Device equals A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. For the purposes of this query, examples such as Anaesthetic machine, patient monitor, Infusion device, ECG Machine, defibrillator, thermometers, etc.
1. Do employees at the trust undertake clinical end user training for medical devices?
2. Which departments or employee titles are required to undertake medical device end user training?
3. How is the training provided?
• Online/E-learning
• In person
• Combination of online & in person
• Other please state.
4. Who provides/ produces the training?
• Manufacturer
• Someone directly employed by the trust please provide job title.
• A third party please provide the name of the provider.
• Other please state.
5. What types of medical devices are subject to such end user training?
6. If the training is online/e-learning, what Learning Management System LMS. does the Trust use for employee training? Examples: Moodle, Totara, Mindflash, Google Classroom
7. If you do use Learning Management Software, does it enable managers to see whether their staff are up to date with training?
8. Is annual recertification of competence managed manually, or does your Learning Management System automatically send reminders and allocate the appropriate courses to users?
9. How much funding has the trust allocated to e-Learning in the past year?