Hi everyone. Our EBME department is starting a programme to train all the users on the Medical Devices in the Hospital. I don't feel comfortable with this as I've not been in the job long and don't really have the experience yet. How do other Hospitals train their users? How do other ebme members feel about about biomeds training users on a regular basis?

I am a medical device trainer and part of the Clinical Engineering department. I was specifically employed to do the job.
I think you have to be the right sort of person to train, some people are very uncomfortable talkingi in front of other so just to say to people "go and do it" is wrong. You need the right people to do it correctly. Some of the current staff might be OK but only they and the managers can decide on that.
Should it be part of EBME/Clinical Engineering? In my opinion, Yes. It is all part of equipment management and you are teaching about equipment so you need some technical knowledge, it is also very helpful if you have clinical expaerience as well. This is unlikely if you are just tellling technical people to do it.
If the current people have the skills and ability to do it right, lucky you. The best thing to do is to employ the right people for the job.
Is this in reality a box ticking exercise for CQC outcome 11, we do user training - box ticked - but we do not care how well it is done so are not doing it properly which costs money in wages.
RoJo
PM me if you want to talk more.

Welcome to the forum Funks.

I've been involved in the engineering support and maintenance of medical equipment since 1974. Yet I still refuse to get involved with training user staff.

Why is that? Well, it's not that I mind talking (and I learned all about "Methods of Instruction" in the army, many years ago now). It's simply that not only do I believe that it's "not part of the job", but (and more to the point) I also regard it as unethical for engineering technicians to train clinical staff.

By the way, I have always taken this line, so at least I can claim to be consistent.

But I also hear what Robert is saying. The training needs to be done. But let it be carried out by specialists who have the knowledge, skills and yes, aptitude (not to mention the time and resources) to properly carry it out.

I think a distinction needs to be made between "user training": and "clinical training" here. They are not the same.

I have never received any formal clinical training in my life and would not assume to claim that I could provide that. However, as an experienced "user" of various equipments I have provided training to clinical staff in the function and control systems of a variety of types of equipment. NOT, absolutely NOT in the detail of clinical application or interpretation but rather in the functional use. A quite different thing.

Indeed. But not always completely understood by those receiving the training, in my experience.

How about:-

1) "Here's the Users Manual"
2) "Go away and read it"
3) "Come back to me if you've got any technical questions"
4) "But see the Nurse Tutor* for anything else"

* Other suitably qualified trainers may be available, depending upon the nature and the type of equipment in question.

I remember the words of a regular visitor to this forum some years ago, 'fix the operator'. I have always provided user training on request but alway make it clear this is not clinical training. We as engineers often know the pitfalls of a device better that the nursing staff so why not pass tht on it the form of awarness training? Hopefully reduce the number of items sent in for repair with no fault found.

This is where proper user training comes in to pay with "proper" people. This is how you use a blood pressure machine is all well and good but if the user then says "What is a normal BP?" it is not helpful to say "See someone else".
Horses for courses
RoJo

"Fix the operator" by all means. But advice, and training, are two different things, I would have thought.

Best leave training, especially in the shark-infested litigious waters of the USA and its colonies, to the professionals like Robert, I reckon.

Have to say, if a nurse said that to me I'd be off to have a quiet word with the nurse manager of the ward

(Ok RoJo, I do accept that you may just have been giving a simplified example)

We've had nurses trying to record ECGs on people with tights on! Good knows what training the nurses are given before going on the wards but it seems non existent.