Wound Care - Mersey Care and DC Solutions
DC Solutions training is highly practical and is rooted in the day-to-day experience of people working in different types of healthcare. One of the organisations that we have worked with is Mersey Care NHS Trust.
Muriel Dunnigan presenting a certificateOur latest development is a new training module on Wound Care for Mersey Care. The senior staff at the Trust had identified an opportunity for improving patient outcomes in this area, and asked DC Solutions to create and deliver a training programme.
The module is designed to improve patient outcomes by training ward staff in -
- how to correctly assess the different types of wound
- the latest techniques in wound care
- to correctly assess when Wound Care specialists need to be called in
You can watch a short film from HealthExecTV about this module by clicking on the image below. This features interviews with Stephen Eley (Dep Director of Nursing & Care, Mersey Care NHS Trust); Muriel Dunnigan (Infection Control Nurse Manager, Mersey Care NHS Trust); and Diana Cain (Director DC Solutions).
In the film, Stephen and Muriel describe how they considered their options once they had identified that wound care provision needed to be improved at Mersey Care. National seminars held under Essential Steps convinced them that they shared a problem with most other Trusts across the country, and that commissioning a tailored training programme was necessary.
Having reached this conclusion, they evaluated different providers, and settled on DC Solutions to create a bespoke training module that could be delivered as distance learning. They had previously used this format with great success:
- 91 certificated completions of 92 enrolments
- 100% compliance on re-audit following training
Distance learning with personal tutor support has other benefits:
- students work at their own pace - neither held back nor forced to proceed before absorbing the key points
- no peer pressure - one-to-one tutorials provide the opportunity to ask questions without 'looking silly'
DC Solutions developed and finalised the course, taking account of Mersey Care's criteria, policies and requirements. It was a great success - Muriel describes how staff really enjoyed taking the course and were very motivated to improve their skills, to the extent that they challenged each other on adopting best practices! As an incentive, all staff who successfully completed the course were given a special 'wound care kit' that gave them everything they needed.
Stephen summarises the impact of the course by saying that it 'gave staff a greater level of confidence and competence in response to wound care situations'. In particular, it had 3 key benefits - cost-effectiveness to control budgets; improved skill sets for staff; and above all, improved patient outcomes.
(HealthExecTV is one of the professional interest channels of GBTV, the internet television specialist.