NHS trust wins gold prize for learning commitment
An NHS trust in the North East has been presented with a national gold award for its commitment to staff training in diabetes.
The City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust received the Virtual College award at the seventh Clinical Symposium earlier this month.
Last year the trust was awarded with the silver prize for encouraging staff to participate in the Virtual College National Patient Safety suite of education and training courses.
This year the uptake saw just under 4,000 modules completed by healthcare professionals at the trust.
Melissa Robinson the lead diabetes specialist nurse for the dedicated in-reach team at City Hospitals Sunderland and and junior doctor Lisa Rogers, who recently completed the e-learning module ‘Safe use of insulin syringes, pen devices, pumps and sharps’ were selected to receive the certificate.
Greater commitment
Ken Bremner, chief executive of City Hospitals Sunderland, said: “This is fantastic and those of you here last year may remember we won the silver award, so once again we can demonstrate your even greater commitment in using these educational packages to make improvements in patient safety.”
Dr Rahul Nayar, who is a consultant and clinical lead for diabetes and endocrinology at City Hospitals Sunderland, said: “It was a huge honour to be once again recognised for all the hard work the team have conducted.
“We introduced the e-learning modules across the trust for all healthcare professionals caring for patients’ with diabetes because what we found was that basic knowledge for insulin safety was sub-optimal; given how common and complex diabetes care is we all needed to improve our knowledge and skills to help patients.
“So we’ve been upscaling inpatient healthcare professionals and we did this by encouraging participation in this Virtual College package, which is related to diabetes.
“The e-learning packages can be done from the comfort of your own home, as well as at work and there’s as assessment with all the key parimeters involved in diabetes.”
The Think Glucose clinical symposium which was held at City Hospitals Sunderland provides clinicians, managers and leaders in diabetes care an opportunity to come together to improve their practical knowledge and share good practice to ensure they are providing the best possible support to patients with diabetes across Sunderland.