Key Messages and links to 20 January 2021
Welcome to Health Education England’s stakeholder bulletin.
In this bulletin we will provide:
- Messages from our Chief Executive’s Office
- COVID-19 latest updates
- Overview of HEE education and training news
Weekly messages from HEE:
Read recent messages from Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive, HEE.
There is so much happening behind the scenes
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures
HEE COVID-19 LATEST UPDATES:
We have created a COVID-19 update webpage for October 2020 onwards. It will provide guidance and information from HEE, which applies to all students and trainees. This webpage also includes HEE COVID-19 Surge Guidance.
Nursing Student Support guidance during COVID-19
Following a request from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has introduced a set of emergency standards that enables final year nursing students (not including those in their final year of a two-year postgraduate diploma programme) to undertake up to 100 percent of their time in clinical practice while that standard remains in effect.
Student guidance has been produced with the aim to provide information to all nursing students in England as to what this means for them during this time. The guidance is focused on how students can support the health and care system during this time of emergency and how we will support their health and wellbeing and their education.
Latest update on 2021 specialty recruitment – release of candidates and doctors in postgraduate training for recruitment and assessments.
The four statutory Education Bodies have worked closely together to agree contingency arrangements for postgraduate medical education and training during the COVID-19 outbreak. Joint statements are available here.
Healthcare Learners’ Coronavirus Advice Guide
The Healthcare Learners Coronavirus Advice Guide aims to serve as an aid to healthcare learners to provide them with useful hints, tips and advice to use during the current COVID-19 pandemic and to protect against other infections. The advice given in this document has been collated from questions posed to HEE and experiences shared by healthcare learners working on the front line.
Webinar on the Covid-19 vaccine and options for cancer patients
GatewayC, a free online cancer education platform developed for primary care professionals across England, is funded by Health Education England and helps users to identify, refer and support patients with symptoms on a suspected cancer pathway. GatewayC’s latest webinar – COVID-19 Vaccine for Cancer Patients – is on Wednesday 27 January (13:00 – 13:30).
HEE TRAINING AND EDUCATION CORE PRIORITY UPDATES –
We are supporting all professions to rapidly grow to meet the needs of patients by:
Latest figures show welcome rise in university acceptances to study for the allied health professions
University acceptances to study for the allied health professions (AHPs) in England rose by an encouraging 17.5 per cent last year compared with 2019, latest figures reveal.
Acceptances rose in all regions, and for all the AHP subjects except one, where the numbers remained static.
It follows a concerted campaign by Health Education England involving a number of initiatives to drive recruitment to the AHP professions. These include raising the profile of the AHPs in the armed forces, in association with Step into Health, and teaming up with the online WoW (World of Work) Show to inspire young people about their future careers.
Applications for the Scientist Training Programme (STP)
The National School of Healthcare Science is delighted to announce that applications for the 2021 Scientist Training Programme (STP) open on Monday 25th January.
The Scientist Training Programme (STP) is a three-year training programme that includes work-based and academic learning. Whilst on the programme trainees will also complete a part-time master’s degree at the university offering the chosen specialism.
Trainees will complete the programme and be employed at a local level by an NHS Trust in England on a fixed term training contract salaried at AfC band 6.
The number of positions available varies each year, this year we are planning to offer jobs to over 300 successful applicants.
Anyone interested in applying to the programme can join our Q&A webinar on Thursday 28 January at 2:00pm. Click here for further details.
We are ensuring core HEE work to support our NHS colleagues continues:
RCP Dental Webinar – Wednesday 27 January at 7pm
Join us for a webinar on Review of Competency Progression for dental. Including updates on foundation, core and specialty as well as answering questions on the night.
Link to join the webinar on the night
New initial education and training standards for pharmacists published by the General Pharmaceutical Council
HEE has welcomed the new initial education and training standards for pharmacists published by the General Pharmaceutical Council. These standards will ensure that skilled pharmacists will play an integral part in the future healthcare workforce.
HEE will work with partners to provide a programme to realise the new standards. Changes will include the current pre-registration year evolving into a Foundation year and will be informed by the Interim Foundation Pharmacist Programme. This will entail evolving support for trainees and supervisors.
Interim Foundation Pharmacist Programme update – New “Getting exam ready” resources
The Interim Foundation Pharmacist Programme is helping learners to develop their practice and prepare for the delayed registration assessment. The programme offers access to educational supervision, a bespoke library of resources, learning events and more.
Learners are currently focused on the delayed registration assessment, with the GPhC confirming March dates. The programme team is developing a series of resources to help learners get ‘exam ready’. The first session aims to focus learners’ revision by helping them to create a good study plan and calm down their nerves. This first video session is available via the Learning Hub and can also be listened to as a podcast.
We encourage all provisionally registered pharmacists to sign up for the programme to benefit from all the support available. The closing deadline has been extended until 10th May 2021 and you can find out more on the IFPP website.
Those working in community pharmacy, primary care and Health in Justice can further benefit by joining the Foundation Pharmacist Pathway 2020/21. Cohort 2 opened this month, and you can find out more on the CPPE website.
We are making sure all professions have the training they need to make a difference:
New elearning sessions available for radiographers, radiologists and breast clinicians
In May 2020, the National Breast Imaging Academy (NBIA), in partnership with Health Education England elearning for healthcare (elfh), launched their elearning programme for radiographers, radiologists and breast clinicians. This is the ninth update about the programme.
The full programme of elearning sessions is due to be completed in 2021 to support your training needs.
What’s new?
There are 90 elearning sessions available on the elfh Hub. The latest sessions to be added include:
- Correlating Ultrasound and Mammography
- Clinical Relevance of Breast Density Measurement in the UK
- Interpreting Digital Breast Tomosynthesis
- Medicolegal Considerations in Breast Imaging.
- Standard Mammographic Views
Additional sessions will be added to the elearning catalogue as soon as they are ready. For further information about the NBIA please visit: www.nationalbreastimagingacademy.org.
More information, accessing the sessions and providing feedback
For more information about the programme, including access to the elearning sessions, please visit the NBIA programme page.
Respiratory Physiotherapy programme author wins Dean’s Award
Congratulation to Debbie Thackray, author of Health Education England’s elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh)’s Respiratory Physiotherapy elearning programme, for winning the Faculty of Environmental Life Sciences (FELS) Dean’s Award for outstanding contribution in education for 2019/20.
Additional learning resources, including case studies, will be added to the Respiratory Physiotherapy programme in early 2021. For more information or to access the programme, visit the Respiratory Physiotherapy programme page.
The Learning Hub – suite of resources for midwives available to access
The Learning Hub is a digital platform that provides easy access to a wide range of education and training resources for the health and care workforce. Organisations and users can contribute and share resources for those in health and care to access.
Colleagues across health and care have been uploading resources and there are now 850 resources available to access and share with colleagues. The resources cover a variety of subjects including role specific content, mental health, COVID-19 resources (including self-swabbing) and how technology is being used to support simulation-based education and remote teaching during the pandemic.
Existing contributions of content to the Learning Hub include a suite of resources for hospital and community-based midwives from the West Midlands Neonatal Operational Delivery Network:
Managing respiratory tract secretions in self-ventilating babies
The success of the Learning Hub relies on new resources being added
Hundreds of colleagues working across health and care have contributed resources to the Learning Hub to enable other colleagues to learn from and enhance the learning experience the Learning Hub can provide. The success of the Learning Hub relies on new resources being added and the Learning Hub team is grateful to those who have already contributed content and is keen to encourage more people to share their resources.
It only takes a few minutes to contribute a resource to the Learning Hub. You can sign into the Learning Hub either using an elearning for healthcare username and password or NHS OpenAthens user account details or by creating an account on the Learning Hub and using those details. Select “Contribute a new resource” and populate the form with details including the resource title, type, description and author details.
For more information about the Learning Hub follow us on Twitter: @HEE_TEL and visit the Learning Hub website to read about our journey so far.
We are making sure all professions have the digital skills they need to make a difference:
The AI in Health and Care Survey 2021
Want to have your say on the adoption of AI in health and care? The 2021 AI in Health and Care Survey is now live and asking for input from digital health innovators, developers and those procuring and implementing AI-driven technologies for health and care.
The survey, from the NHS AI Lab (NHSX) with the support of the AHSN Network, will identify key developments within AI space, understand the settings that AI-driven technologies are being developed for, as well as the importance of education, medical classification, ethics and wider system support for the deployment of these technologies. Complete the survey now.
FURTHER INFORMATION
By following @NHS_HealthEdEng you can keep up to date with new information and resources as they are published. Most importantly are the notifications of webinars being broadcast during the week.
Right now, making sure we are communicating properly is obviously incredibly important. If there’s any information you think is missing on HEE’s webpages, please let us know by submitting your question to the HEE Q&A helpdesk.