Health Education England elearning for healthcare has worked with the British Association of Dermatologists to develop three new sessions as part of its elearning programme looking at the diagnosis and management of dermatological disorders.

The new sessions cover: Introduction to psychosocial management in dermatology; Psychosocial assessment in dermatology practice; and Psychological interventions for dermatology patients.

The elearning resource, aimed at healthcare professionals working with patients with skin conditions and other members of the NHS workforce, is based on the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board curriculum in dermatology.

The programme includes more than 160 sessions, which cover topics including management of melanoma, acne, and psoriasis.

NHS clinicians and students can access the free learning resources. Please click here.

Health Education England has worked with UCLPartners and NHS mental and physical health experts to develop a suite of educational material for use across primary and secondary NHS health settings.

“Breaking Down the Barriers” aims to support education across the NHS workforce by providing the training materials to enhance existing skills, increase knowledge for early recognition, assessment, management and signposting of mental and physical health needs of patients.

A key aim of this work is to facilitate and encourage collaborative working and the sharing of resources and training delivery arrangement between NHS Trusts. The education and training materials cover the following areas:

* Mental Health awareness in emergency and urgent care settings
* Physical Health awareness in mental health settings
* Child and Adolescent mental health awareness training for GP practices in primary care
* Child and Adolescent learning disabilities awareness training for GP practices in primary care

The resources are a combination of classroom training, videos, simulation training, presentations, case based scenarios, case studies, tutorials and quizzes.

Breaking Down the Barriers awareness training packages and associated materials are available as a free downloadable resource from HEE elearning for healthcare for use across primary and secondary care settings.

To access the resources please click here.

Health Education England elearning for healthcare has worked with the British Pharmacological Society to develop an elearning programme based on the principles of clinical pharmacology that underpin safe and effective prescribing.

“Prescribe” provides elearning materials to help healthcare students to develop a firm grounding in the principles of clinical pharmacology and use of medicines more generally. The elearning resource contains both interactive learning sessions and information designed to support students in achieving the relevant knowledge and skills outcomes.

The elearning programme is intended to complement existing teaching initiatives and is made available free of charge to students registered with UK universities and NHS-affiliated organisations.

Prescribe is based on the learning outcomes set out in Outcomes for Graduates (originally published in Tomorrow’s Doctors 2009). These reflect earlier proposals made by the Safe Prescribing Working Group, convened by the Medical Schools Council in 2007, and are set out in greater detail within the British Pharmacological Society’s curriculum for medical students.

These competencies include the ability to:

* establish an accurate drug history
* plan appropriate therapy for common indications
* write a safe and legal prescription
* appraise critically the prescribing of others
* calculate appropriate doses
* provide patients with appropriate information
* access reliable information about medicines
* detect and report adverse drug reactions.

Prescribe will also provide material that is relevant to UK final year medical students preparing to sit the Prescribing Safety Assessment and is also aligned to many of the competencies highlighted in the recently published Prescribing Competency Framework.

To access the elearning click here.

As part of the continuing drive to implement the Care Certificate nationwide, Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) is developing an elearning programme. This is being supported by a steering group with membership from HEE’s local offices and content is being developed and reviewed by subject matter experts.

The programme will provide a suite of learning to support the underpinning knowledge for the Care Certificate. It will utilise the work completed in the existing online workbook which was developed by HEE, Skills for Care and Skills for Health, with health and social care staff across the country.

Part of the programme has been piloted by Care Certificate assessors and students across the country and feedback from this will help shape the final programme, which will be available in March 2017.

Access to the Care Certificate elearning programme will be free of charge for health and social care staff. All learning will be available within a single, structured, accessible programme and all activity will be recorded within the user’s account as evidence of completion.

For more information please contact Victoria Winlow, Assistant Programme Manager, HEE elfh by email.

Health Education England elearning for healthcare (elfh) has worked in partnership with NHS England to develop an elearning programme about personal health budgets.

Personal health budgets are one way to give people with long term health conditions and disabilities more choice and control over the money spent on meeting their health and wellbeing needs.

Adults who are eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare and children who are in receipt of continuing care have had a right to have a personal health budget since October 2014. Since April 2015, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have been looking at expanding their local personal health budget offer to other people who could benefit.

The elearning programme, which is aimed at those who are supporting individuals to plan for their own care, introduces personal health budgets and explains how they work for people. The resource also covers how to address some of the personal health budget challenges faced by the NHS and the plans to expand availability to other people with complex and long term health conditions.

To access the elearning resource click here.

Health Education England’s elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) programme has launched an elearning resource that helps describes the role of clinical and educational supervisors and how they work with postgraduate medical trainees employed under the new 2016 contract. The elearning supports educational and clinical supervisors in understanding their role and how they can support their trainees under the new contract.

The elearning session is designed to support educational and clinical supervisors but is relevant to all those involved in the management of trainees, including trainees themselves. The development of this elearning session involved both NHS Employers and the British Medical Association.

Educational and clinical supervisors have always held a critical role in relation to the appropriate appraisal, assessment and support of trainees. The 2016 contract provides a structured method for them to raise issues about their working and learning environment through exception reports. The responsibility of educational and clinical supervisors has not changed with the introduction of this contract, however, some of the policies and processes that surround the role may differ, specifically around the introduction of work scheduling and exception reporting.

These changes will provide a clearer structure through which supervisors can resolve issues raised by trainees they are responsible for, and will require all supervisors to have knowledge of the processes and how to work with them to navigate and support.

The session describes how educational and clinical supervisors work together to deliver the functions defined by the new contract. Examples are worked through demonstrating how supervisors work with trainees to personalise generic work schedules and how this may operate across different training programmes. There are also examples of how exception reports are managed by educational and clinical supervisors and how these may relate to workplace reviews.

These are new activities which should serve to strengthen the ability of the educational and clinical supervisors in ensuring the integrity of training programmes

Professor Wendy Reid, Director of Education and Quality, Health Education England, said:

“This new resource is a timely addition to Health Education England’s elearning for healthcare catalogue. To explain the role of educational and clinical supervisors and how they work with and support postgraduate medical trainees, including the processes under the new contract, is welcomed. We hope the new processes will strengthen the role of educational and clinical supervisors in supporting trainees and in turn improve their working lives.”

To access the elearning click here.

Health Education England has worked with Public Concern at Work and the National Guardian Office to develop an elearning session to help managers respond to concerns raised by members of their team.

Earlier this year the Secretary of State for Health commissioned Sir Robert Francis to carry out an independent review into the culture of raising concerns within the NHS. The review recommended that every NHS organisation should provide training on the value of speaking up which complies with national standards.

An elearning programme about raising concerns was launched earlier this year which teaches NHS staff the value of speaking up and highlights what support is available. Speaking up about wrongdoing at the earliest opportunity can save lives, prevent harm and protect organisational reputation.

This second elearning resource, which complements the “raising concerns” programme looks at appropriate ways of handling and supporting staff when they raise a concern. The session also addresses how best to respond to a concern about malpractice, wrongdoing or risk.

In addition two education and training films have been developed – “Raising Concerns” and “Responding to Concerns.” The films, which complement the elearning, support healthcare professionals to feel empowered to raise and respond to concerns.

Before commencing the new elearning resource, it is recommended that you complete the session: Raising a Concern. To access the elearning session please click here.

To view the films please click here.

Health Education England’s elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) programme picked up the “Best Adapt Project” award at the Learning Pool 2016 awards.

Adapt is an open source authoring tool for creating fully responsive, multi-device, HTML5 elearning content and Learning Pool are one of the organisations behind the open source project. The award was given in recognition of the way the authoring tool has been used in HEE elfh’s MindEd for Families elearning resource.

The “Best Adapt Project” judges were looking for evidence that the project is innovative and original and that the interactivity is used to reinforce learning. elfh certainly achieved this; pushing the limits of what can be done with Adapt and creating a comprehensive, graphically rich suite of resources of the highest quality. The team also used an innovative co-authoring model where parents and clinicians collaborated on each session along with elfh’s instructional designers.

HEE elfh’s MindEd for Families programme is aimed at parents and carers of children and young people who suffer from poor mental health. It was developed in partnership with a consortium to ensure this sensitive subject was handled appropriately and accurately, including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of General Practitioners, Young Minds, the National Children’s Bureau, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. It also put parents at the heart of the authoring process to ensure that their views were represented and the output was right for them as the ultimate users of the content.

Commenting on HEE elfh’s recent win, Martin Sinclair, elfh Programme Lead, said: “HEE elfh is delighted to receive a Learning Pool award for the MindEd for Families programme. As elearning professionals it is great to see that our good work has been recognised by the industry and we are all very proud of MindEd for Families. It is an important and necessary resource for people in very difficult situations and we hope that we can make a positive difference.”

For more information about HEE elfh’s programme please visit www.e-lfh.org.uk

Attached photograph shows from L to R:

• Sam Barbee – Sales and Marketing Director, Learning Pool
• Martin Sinclair – Programme Lead, elearning for healthcare
• Wendy Lowe – Instructional Designer, elearning for healthcare
• Deborah Limb – Chief Operations Officer, Learning Pool.