HEE – Breastmilk Provision for Preterm and Sick Neonates e-learning programme launched

Health Education England (HEE) has worked in partnership with the Thames Valley and Wessex Neonatal Operational Delivery Network, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, University Southampton Hospitals, Oxford University Hospitals and HEE e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) to develop a learning resource to improve education and training of all relevant staff in the support of breastmilk provision for preterm and sick infants.

The e-learning programme will also enable healthcare professionals to improve breastmilk provision rates at discharge from neonatal units.

The content is suitable for all professionals who work to support to improving breastmilk provision including:

Non-registered and registered nurses
Midwives and maternity healthcare support workers
Medical trainees
All medical staff

This resource can be used as a preparatory learning experience and can also be used for performance support by healthcare professionals. The content is split into four main sections:

After delivery – what the healthcare professional should know and help the mother to understand before she starts expressing breastmilk
Starting to express – how to support a mother practically and emotionally as she begins to express
Increasing milk supply – how to support mothers to maintain and increase their breastmilk supply
Resources – access to a set of useful job aids and reference tools.

The e-learning programme is available to access for free via the e-LfH Hub and the Electronic Staff Record.

For more information about the e-learning programme and details on how to access the programme visit: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/breastmilk-provision-for-preterm-and-sick-neonates/

New HEE e-learning programme to improve care for babies, mothers and families

A new e-learning programme has been launched to help healthcare professionals improve outcomes for babies, mothers and families through the delivery of safer care.

The learning modules, developed by Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare, NHS Improvement and a range of experts, focus on four clinical areas:

respiratory conditions
hypoglycaemia
jaundice
asphyxia (perinatal hypoxia–ischaemia).

An additional module also raises awareness of the importance of keeping mother and baby together.

The programme is part of the Avoiding Term Admissions unto Neonatal units “Atain” initiative, which aims to reduce avoidable causes of harm that can lead to infants born at term (ie ≥ 37+0 weeks gestation) being admitted to a neonatal unit.

For more information about the programme

Scheduled downtime for e-Learning for Healthcare

New and updated e-learning content is being added to Health Education England’s e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH) programme on an increasingly regular basis which is seeing more e-learning programmes made available for members of the health and social care workforce.

As the number of programmes grow, so does the number of users. The quality of the experience the users receive when accessing e-LfH e-learning content is really important to HEE and, therefore, they need to ensure their servers can meet the increasing demand for their programmes.

HEE has therefore planned some system downtime to increase the capacity of their servers. The downtime is scheduled for Thursday 18 May 2017 between 8am and 12noon.

The e-LfH Hub and the e-LfH website will be unavailable during this time. NHS Trusts colleagues who access the content on their own systems via an AICC link will also be unable to access e-learning programmes.

If you have any concerns or questions about this short period of downtime please email: [email protected]. Please share this notification with colleagues who may be affected.

For regular updates about e-LfH content please follow them on Twitter: @HEE_TEL

Can you spare 15 minutes to shape the future of technology enhanced learning in healthcare?

Health Education England’s Technology Enhanced Learning Programme is working on the Department of Health mandate to find digital solutions to some of the challenges presented in accessing, creating and sharing online teaching and learning resources.

HEE is conducting a short survey looking at the current use, attitudes and views toward online learning resources. The findings from this research will go towards improving access to learning resources, greater collaboration and sharing of information, and the avoidance of costly duplication.

Please can you spare 15 minutes to undertake this survey?

This survey is part of a wider user testing exercise that is cross-checking existing research. All data you provide in your answers remains anonymous, and you will not be asked to provide your name or your specific place of work. They would ask you to answer all questions to the best of your ability. You do not need to spend very long on each question and there are no right or wrong answers. It may seem that some questions are asked more than once but this is part of the chosen methodology.

Please forward this email to your colleagues across any/all of your networks as HEE want opinions from as wide an audience as possible.

Your help is very much appreciated.

Go to HEE survey

If you would like to find out more about the programme, please visit the website or email [email protected]

HEE – Care Matters: Shape of Caring – June 2016

This bulletin from Health Education England (HEE) aims to keep audiences and stakeholders aware of what is happening in relation their overall programmes of work and in particular how they are responding to the Shape of Caring review.

It covers:

Responding to Raising the Bar
Responding to the Shape of Caring review
Green light for Nursing Associate role
Exploring the Shape of Caring review themes
Introducing our Florence Nightingale Fellows
The role of Health Visitors in mental health

Care Matters: Shape of Caring

HEE launches e-Learning to encourage healthcare professionals to “Think Sepsis”

Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (HEE e-LfH), in partnership with the Royal College of General Practitioners, has launched an e-learning programme for healthcare professionals about sepsis.

“Think Sepsis” aims to improve the diagnosis and early management of sepsis in primary care. The e-learning includes five sessions:

Session 1 – Overview of Sepsis
Session 2 – Adult Sepsis
Session 3 – Childhood Sepsis
Session 4 – Complex Sepsis Issues and Future Development
Session 5 – Sepsis, Care Homes and the Frail Elderly.

Every year 123,000 cases of sepsis occur in England and there are approximately 37,000 deaths. Prompt recognition of sepsis and rapid intervention will help reduce the number of deaths occurring annually.

The e-learning programme has been developed for GPs and healthcare professionals working in primary care including nurses, health visitors, midwives, pharmacists and paramedics. “Think Sepsis” follows the recommendations of the new NICE guideline on sepsis recognition, diagnosis and early management which were launched this week.

To complement the e-learning programme a film has also been developed. The short film features the story of Jason Watkins and Clara Francis who tragically lost their daughter Maude aged just three to undiagnosed sepsis in 2011. The film highlights the key signs that healthcare workers should be looking out for and asks them to think: ‘could this be sepsis?’ when assessing and diagnosing patients.

To view the film: Think sepsis: a film for all healthcare workers involved in the care of sick children

To access the e-learning visit the e-LfH website

Nursing Associate role to go ahead!

A new role that will sit alongside existing nursing care support workers and fully-qualified registered nurses to deliver hands-on care moved a step closer today as Health Education England (HEE) published the response to its recent consultation on the Nursing Associate role. The consultation attracted more than 1,000 responses from individuals including patients, members of the public and a wide range of organisations including professional bodies, trade unions, health care and social care providers and commissioners of healthcare.

The role will be given the title Nursing Associate. In order to get the implementation of the Nursing Associate role right, HEE intends to appoint ‘test sites’. Five workshops will take place in England in July so that HEE can engage with stakeholders on the scope of practice of the new role. Early test sites will recruit 1,000 students to start training for the new role in 2017.

HEE will run five events in July across England, where they will invite people and organisations to help draw up the scope of practice for the role. The dates and locations are set out below and bookings will be open soon, via Eventbrite – more information will be available on the HEE website.

1 July            Birmingham
15 July           London
20 July           Manchester
22 July           Reading
29 July           Newcastle

Join Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, HEE’s Nursing Director, for a Twitter chat on the @WeNurses platform on Tuesday 7 June (8-9pm) to debate areas of the consultation and ask questions using the hashtag #shapeofcaring. They will also running a webinar, the details of which will be available at the HEE website.

iHV welcomes new HEE Guidance on Specialist Health Visitors in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health

The Institute of Health Visiting warmly welcomes the new commissioning and workforce development guidance on Specialist Health Visitors in Perinatal and Infant Mental health (PIMH) – What they do and why they matter, published today by Health Education England (HEE). It concludes that all women and their partners should have access to a specialist health visitor in perinatal and infant mental health (PIMH) and recommends at least one for every health visiting service.

Creating Specialist Health Visitor posts in PIMH within every health visiting service will play a valuable part in reducing the incidence and impact of postnatal depression and other perinatal mental health problems. This will be through earlier diagnosis, better intervention and support – creating savings on child and adult mental health services, and improved public health.

Dr Cheryll Adams, Executive Director of the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV), said:

“The iHV is delighted to endorse this new guidance which provides a framework for improvements in the services that health visitors can provide to families to promote their mental health.

“Through the health visiting ‘universal’ service, health visitors are well-placed to identify those families requiring additional support, especially where the mother (or indeed father) may be suffering from perinatal mental illness, or where the bond between parent and baby may be compromised. However, health visitors have many other roles and responsibilities taking their time during this important period of every child’s life and they would benefit from specialist support in this challenging arena.”

The framework sets out the important role of specialist health visitors in PIMH, illustrates the value to parents and other health professionals involved in a mother’s care and recommends that every woman should have access to a specialist Health Visitor as part of the multi-disciplinary team.

Read the full press release

HEE seeks views on new nursing support role

Health Education England (HEE) has launched a consultation process and is keen to hear views on the new role which will work alongside health care support workers and fully-qualified nurses to deliver hands on care, focusing on ensuring patients continue to get the compassionate care they deserve. The new role will help bridge the gap between health and care support workers, who have a care certificate and graduate registered nurses. It also offer opportunities for health care assistants to progress into nursing roles.

Healthcare employers, nurses, care assistants, health commissioners and other stakeholders are invited to comment on the design of a new nursing support role.

The consultation seeks views on a range of issues, this includes:

Principles for the new care role.
learning outcomes that will need to be assessed to assure quality, safety and public confidence in the proposed role.
Identifying what academic achievement, if any, would be required, alongside practical skills and how this learning should be best delivered.
looking at whether or not the proposed role should be regulated.
Agreeing the title of this new role. It has provisionally been given the title Nursing Associate.

This is your opportunity to have your say in the development of a role that will play an important part in the delivery of future healthcare and meet the diverse health needs of people up and down the country.

The consultation closes at midnight on 11 March 2016.

Responses can be made online here