THE module

I have two choices for this assignment, both are projects in which I am involved and require an e-learning activity to be developed.

1. HMIMMS: Hospital Major Incident Medical Management Strategies is an international approach to "Disaster" management. It has been initiated in South Africa by Prof. Lee Wallis from SU and UCT but was originally developed in the U.K. by a group known as the Advanced Life Support Group. The aim of this initiative is to get all role players in SA, i.e. public and private sector to have a common approach to "Disasters". This programme is supposed to be endorsed by all healthcare facilities by 2010.

Medi Clinic have adapted some of the concepts to facilitate the differences between their Organizational Philosophy and that of ALSG whilst still maintaining the same principles. I have been involved in the initial training throughout the group since January this year.

The initial training involved lectures and tabletop simulation excercises of the different stages in the HMIMMS plan. The plan for the training is that we train a core group from each hospital, provide training material and then expect that group to continue with the training of all staff in their hospital.
The core group comprised: Training and Development Consultant, (A Professional Nurse who provides inservice education), the Clinical Governance Manager; the Hospital Manager or Pharmacy manager; the Nursing Manager (Matron); Technical Manager and the Unit Manager of the Emergency Centre. As we required a minimum of 10 persons to attend a session that we ran, this was bulked up by additional staff of their choice.

The aim of the e-learning programme is to aid the 53 hospitals in their continuing education of the staff.
The target audience can be divided into 3 groups, viz. Healthcare Providers, Management and Support Services.

2. I have developed a new adult observation chart which is being launched this month. It will be used in the 53 SA hospitals, Namibia and Dubai. It is based on the Early Warning Scores used in the U.K., Scotland and Australia.
The aim of the chart is to help the nursing staff to identify the patient at risk of deteriorating and give guidance as to interventions that should be considered for that patient.

Early Warning Scores were used in conjunction with Rapid Response Teams of Critical Care Staff and Doctors. Unfortunately it would be difficult to initiate this in private hospitals, hence the change of format.

The training involved in the launch of this new chart is substantial.
1. A user guide has been developed which will be placed in each Nursing Unit, (ward).
2. A flow guide was developed which is to be placed in the patient file, allowing staff to easily obtain guidance should a vital sign fall out of "normal" ranges.
b. A facilitator guide and Power Point Presentation has been developed to aid the Training and Development Consultants in their training of staff. In this there are excercises and a test that require completion.
This has been linked to the MAP, or continuing education points system that is used in Medi-Clinic, i.e. the staff member will receive 3 MAP points once they have been trained and found competent in the use of the record.

The record will be formally implemented once the majority of nursing staff have been trained in a hospital, which should be by end July.

The e-learning activity should compliment the other training strategies and allow staff, particularly of the smaller hospitals, to enhance their knowledge.

Whilst developing this record and the training strategies, I realised that this may be a means of teaching integration of knowledge into the clinical area.

Regards

Bronwen