Hello everyone! I am a medical device trainer at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth. My colleague and I are very keen to talk to other Med. device trainers with a view to comparing notes to see if there is anything we can do differently.

Since april 2005 we have been traing R.N.'s in the use of the Graserby MS26, Asena GH and Ivac P2000 as well as dealing with any other related issues that crop up.

We are desparetely tring to make the training as accessible as possible to as many nurses as we can and would welcome any advice. We run training sessions in clinical areas for groups or one to one, have labelled all the pumps with our contact details, put up posters and joined forces with the pain team and palliative care team.

Any other ideas/suggestions would be most welcome. I am in the process of training the senior nurses and am tring to reach the matrons as well.

Thankyou!

Lisa
There are a multitude of questions and answers here. We have been running a Medical Device Training Team here in Portsmouth for the past year and have had relative success in getting clinical people trained.
Maybe you should arrange a visit and see the sort of things we are doing.
Also you may want to put a posting on www.nursetrainer.com as you may get more response there.

Actually the Nursetrainer forum is not being administered at the moment.

No new memberships are being allowed.

Feel free to post here, if it becomes worthwhile, I'll open a category for it.

Do you find that if you run training sessions in clinical areas, the staff are constantly being called away?

I used to do this but I always hold training sessions away from clinical areas now.

It stops staff being called to do other duties and it also lends weight to what you are teaching and what they are learning because it demands extra time and commitment on both sides.

How do you keep records of who has had what training and when they need a refresher course?

Whenever we do training we try and do it away from the clinical area, but at times it is necessary for the session to be in a clinical setting. Invariably staff will get called away or are unavailable due to staff shortages, it's a fact of life in the current NHS.
With regard to record keeping, we have instituted the following:
1. Attendance sheet with all relevant details and signature.
2. Competency Statements for each piece of equipment.
3. Certificates of Competency valid for 2 years.
4. All attendance and competency is entered onto a database.

Hope this helps

Lisa,
There are a number of clinical equipment trainers in post in the midland area, they meet on regular basis to discuss and share ideas, my colleague is the chairperson, if you want to send me an email I can put you in contact with her.

By the way... The www.nursetrainer.com website is up and running again.

Hi, I am a medical device trainer brand new in post with no contact at all with any other medical device trainers. There are none that i am aware of in the north west.
I dont know where to start i have a million questions and feel like i am taking on a job with my head in a big wooly bag!
Is there any one who would like to have a chat, bounce ideas and compare notes i would be REALLY grateful as i am very much alone!

Hi Quinny - try registering on www.nursetrainer.com the folks there are in exactly the same boat as you.

By the way, your email address (used to register on this site) bounced. Please check and change your profile.

have you been on the nursetrainer web site, its for medical equipment trainers, loads of training stuff on there.

Hello there, you mentioned entering competency and attendance on a database, is the database your own or do you use a specific one?

Also, I am new to medical devices,how do you measure someones competency, this is an area that we are currently having problems with, we do not have a specific trainer in our Trust, some of the staff are trainers but it is becoming apparent that each area is doing it differently.

Hi Gracer
The database is an Excel spreadsheet that I set up myself with a list of all the clinical staff on the rows and devices on the columns. We then log when training has been undertaken (either by the Medical Device Training Team or by another training group or by a company). We also log competency. This is undertaken by producing competency sheets for each device with a list of questions related to the device. The staff member then signs themselves off as competent or requiring further training.
If you want further details, then send me a private e-mail and I'll try and help you.