Case Study

To drive improved health outcomes, the public health system needs a competent and driven workforce. The challenge is to create a culture of leadership at all levels, with staff who are engaged, empowered and encouraged to lead public health into the future.The ‘Growing Your Own’ leadership development programmes, cultivated by Health Education North West’s public health workforce team, aimed to develop and grow leaders at all levels across the public health workforce.

Due to the reconfiguration of healthcare organisations and the services that they provide, practice placement opportunities for pre-registration student nurses are changing and it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide the variety of placement opportunities required to prepare students for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

The Cheshire and Merseyside Healthy Providers Network (C&M HP network) is a voluntary, professional, peer support network formed in the summer of 2012 that aims to provide a unified approach to health improvement across Cheshire & Merseyside (C&M). The network currently meets on a bi-monthly basis and is keen to establish an online forum as well.

East Lancashire NHS Trust’s Integrated Respiratory Service (IRS) has developed a specialist ten to twelve week placement for student nurses, which allows students to gain clinical experience in a specialist nursing role, rather than within a traditional ward or outpatient setting.Trainees gain an understanding of the specialist respiratory nursing role as well how that role works alongside other members of the multi-disciplinary team.

There has been a significant increase in the size of the NHS workforce at Central Manchester Foundation Trust (CMFT) over recent years, and a subsequent increase in demand for individual counselling and psychology sessions. As a result the time spent waiting for an appointment has also increased for staff. As one response to this situation, the Staff Support Service at CMFT undertook a pilot project to deliver guided computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT), with facilitated support, to individuals with anxiety and/or depression.

Healthcare assistants (HCAs) are essential to the delivery of high quality patient care, and, as identified in the Francis Report and Cavendish Review, there is a real need to improve the support they receive as well as their development in the workplace.In response to this need the Executive Director of Nursing for Mersey Care NHS Trust initiated the development of a two day mandatory course, ‘Let’s Celebrate Healthcare Assistants: Compassionate Care in Practice’.

Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)Team have developed a structured five day bespoke placement for third year student nurses incorporating the management outcomes of their final placement relevant to IPC.The Core Outcomes of the placement covers MRSA; Clostridium difficile and Norovirus, which were selected because they are the most common organisms encountered on the wards. Students are also able to suggest two learning outcomes of their own.

This case study looks at how a Simulation and Clinical Skills team created a training programme designed for staff in community services at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. Previously most training had been inappropriate mainly focussing on care in a hospital setting. The team wanted to redress this to give community staff the tools to deliver gold standard care to their patients. In April 2015 they approached the community teams at their governance meeting to ask what bespoke training they felt they needed to best serve their patients.

Margaret Green has recently completed her level 2 Pharmacy Assistant Apprenticeship training. She had worked for five years at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, and hadn’t really considered further education or becoming an apprentice.She shares her education journey that has been 30 years in the making. 

Richard Evans completed the two year NHS Pre-Registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician programme in 2011.He joined the Apprenticeship scheme after a period of travelling. Having previously worked in the manufacturing industry, he had some good skills to bring to the NHS. Richards shares some of his experiences.