Health workers perform a wide range of practical procedures: inserting drips, drains, feeding tubes, catheters; performing minor operations; and using syringe drivers and pumps to administer drugs and fluids. Approximately 10% of patients in the UK experience an ‘adverse event’ in their care, often due to practical procedures. It is likely that children and adults in other countries are even more likely to have major adverse events caused by clinical procedures.
GOALS
- Improve health workers’ skills in performing practical procedures
- Prevent adverse events and avoidable harm to patients through better health worker education
SOLUTIONS
- An international team of experts will develop appropriate, high-quality learning materials for each audience and region
- Show practical skills across the spectrum of medicine, nursing and clinical specialities; ensuring relevance to our target audiences and regions
- Demonstrate each skill, in a step-by-step way by video, to show exactly how it should be done
- Highlight common mistakes and pitfalls that must be avoided
- Develop an interactive environment so that learners can check their knowledge and skills on line before doing the ‘real-life’ supervised practice
- Emphasise the need for supervised practice and assessment before performing any procedure unsupervised
- Highlight the need for regular refreshers and updates to maintain skills and to engage with users to shape materials and obtain learner/user feedback
TARGETS
- Develop a resource for doctors, nurses and allied health professionals for Africa, Asia and Europe/North America/Australasia, covering a wide range of practical clinical procedures
- Produce a simplified, focused version for community health workers in resource poor countries
- Provide videos for patients to help them understand and prepare for practical procedures
- Use interviews, focus groups and informal feedback to understand the views of learners, educators and patients
