NEWS

Ministers tell new training body to focus on older people’s care By Sally Gillen Additional training will be offered to nurses caring for older people who have complex needs as part of a government drive to improve outcomes for those with long-term conditions. The Department of Health has told Health education england (Hee), the new body responsible for staff training in the NHS, that programmes should be in place by September 2014. The government says all NHS staff should complete an awareness programme before caring for dementia patients. And the Hee has been ordered to review the content of pre-registration courses so that every student is suitably prepared to work with older people.

The Hee’s mandate adds that half of nursing students should be undertaking at least one placement in a community setting by March 2015.

MANDATE SAyS UNIvERSITIES ShoUlD pREpARE STUDENTS foR coMMUNITy RolES RCN primary and community care adviser Rebecca Cheatle welcomed the plans for additional post-registration training in older people’s care. But she added that all pre-registration students should undertake community placements to ensure they are prepared properly for all care settings. Nursing educators say providing quality placements in primary care is

Young patients are being asked what makes them grumpy, whether they can tie their own shoelaces and what movies they like, in a bid enhance their relationships with nurses. Paediatric nurses at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital and the Prince Charles Hospital, both in south Wales, will run a three-month trial of This is Me questionnaires, which are commonly used in hospitals to help patients with dementia communicate with staff. Two versions have been designed – one for children under the age of 12 and another for patients aged 12 to 18. The youngest patients are asked questions such as ‘what is your favourite colour?’, while teenagers are asked about what worries them about being in hospital. Cwm Taf Health Board transforming care facilitator Rebecca Thomas, a nurse, said: ‘The questionnaire will give young people an opportunity to express who they are and help the nurses to understand them better.’

NURSING STANDARD 

STEPHEN LEWIS

Staff gain insight into younger patients

a huge challenge. Kingston University head of pre-registration nursing programmes Karen elcock said: ‘A number of factors make community placements difficult, including the fact that many mental health and alcohol services are no longer NHS employers, having been sold off to private organisations.’ She added that universities would find it easier to persuade Gps, care homes and other providers to offer placements if the Hee paid them a fee. ‘Money would certainly open doors and it would be good if we could have some brokering support from Hee.’ Ms elcock said her university is working with the London Deanery on a project involving five general practices that have agreed to take on students. Birmingham City University head of professional practice Carol Doyle agreed that attaching tariffs to placements could increase the number available. The government drive to recruit 4,200 more health visitors by 2015 has increased demand for placements.

Social care

Royal Glamorgan patient Rhiannon Jones, 13, has completed the This is Me questionnaire

Mark Jones, senior lecturer and head of practice education at City University, London, said 43 per cent of his students’ time in practice was spent in community and social care settings. He agreed that securing placements in general practices is particularly difficult. The Hee could not comment on whether there were any plans to pay placement providers. ‘We will be working with local education training boards and provider organisations to ensure we have the right placements at the right time for our nursing students,’ a spokesperson said. To read the Health Education England mandate go to tiny.cc/HEE_mandate june 5 :: vol 27 no 40 :: 2013  7 

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Ministers tell new training body to focus on older people's care.

NEWS Ministers tell new training body to focus on older people’s care By Sally Gillen Additional training will be offered to nurses caring for older...
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