Victoria and I wanted to share our experience of being part of the MAP community of practice, so we developed this short video for you to enjoy!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TAOfLMnyFo]
We look forward to seeing you in 2016!!!
Health Management and Innovation Update (HMIU)
Project summary
- A monthly current awareness bulletin (HMIU bulletin) issued by the Library & Knowledge Service at West Suffolk NHS FT for the Trust Managers and Executive Directors.
- Based on the Health Management Updates bulletin produced by Knowledge & Library Services, Tameside Hospital NHS FT
Project team
- Laura Wilkes Library and Knowledge Services Manager West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
- James Allen Senior Library Technician West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
- Roshanara Nair, Library Services Manager Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Resources required
Cost: Staff time to compile and distribute the updates, the majority of time being spent by the two library managers in compiling and arranging the content
People: Laura Wilkes and Roshanara Nair (Library Managers); James Allen (Senior Library Technician)
Time:
- For Roshanara to select content from the King’s Fund’s Health Management & Policy Alert which she receives weekly.
- For Roshanara to check other alerting /horizon scanning services & add content as appropriate
- for Roshanara to check and amend all the links, compile her Health Management Updates and distribute it
- for Laura to cut and paste the relevant sections from Roshanara’s Update and add any local news or additional relevant topics, and then to align each story to the Trust’s Vision, Priorities and Ambitions
- for James to format the bulletin into our agreed format, upload to the website, advertise in the Green Sheet and Tweet the link to the latest Update
Technology: Standard email software to distribute the updates, internet access to carry out the searches and Office software to complete the formatting.
Expertise/skills mix required
- Search skills in order to compile a relevant search strategy
- Knowledge and understanding of current & prevailing political, financial, quality and economic issues that may affect the NHS
- Good general understanding of local, UK and global health issues
- Ability to carry out horizon scanning or use resources which do so
- Good understanding of current affairs
- Ability to use other alerting services
- Ability to build and maintain good networks within the organisation
- Ability to align the content of the bulletins to local strategy and goals
- Ability to format documents quickly and efficiently
- Ability to use social media effectively to promote the bulletins
- Ability to utilise local promotional resources to promote the bulletins
- Ability to use web content software to update web sites
Timeframe: This is a monthly bulletin, delivered approximately at the beginning or middle of the month in time for the Monthly Board Report. There is an expectation that the bulletin will continue indefinitely.
“The story”
At West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, the main aim of the Health Management and Innovation Update (HMIU) is to highlight national policies, evidence and reports which may impact on the Trusts’ Together Framework ‘(Our Patients, Our Hospital, Our Future, Together’) or help us to achieve our strategic goals.
In addition, the HMIU highlights innovation within the NHS and, specifically, local innovations within the Trust. The HMIU is essentially a current awareness bulletin aimed specifically at service and operational managers within the Trust, as well as the executive team.
The HMIU is a collaborative project between West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Tameside NHS Foundation Trust, who produce the source document each month. Tameside have agreed to allow modifications to the basic template, and the LKS Manager at West Suffolk also selects content from other sources, local news and innovations and then adds it to the Tameside bulletin.
The draft bulletin is then formatted to align to the West Suffolk Trust’s Ambitions within the Together Framework – deliver personal, safe, joined-up care, support a healthy start, a healthy life, ageing well and support all our staff.
To ensure sustainability, the search strategy will be compiled and amended to suit the changing priorities of the NHS Trusts involved. More use will be made of additional alerting services to widen the scope of the update as needed.
The content of the update is used to inform sections of the monthly Trust Board Report as confirmed by the Chief Executive of West Suffolk in his Twitter feed.
Feedback is sought each month and testimonials confirm the positive impact of the update:
‘Regarding your HMIU, I always find two or three things of interest which I then look up. In the latest I looked up Deming or die and outpatient survey and 7 day working. I suspect others do the same. It is very helpful’
‘This is very useful to me. I don’t always look at every article but do always look to see if there is anything that I have missed that would be useful.’
Alignment to local, regional and national drivers
Trust strategy (local)
- Our Patients, Our Hospital, Our Future, Together – Strategic Framework for West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
- Vision – To deliver the best quality and safest care for our community
- Three Priorities – deliver for today, invest in quality, staff and clinical leadership, build a joined-up future
- Seven Ambitions – deliver personal care, safe care, joined-up care, support a healthy start, a healthy life, ageing well, support all our staff
Library Strategy 2013 to 2016 (local)
- Promotion of innovation within the trust and actively marketing the library service to the Executive Group (TEG) and to service and operational managers
Knowledge for Healthcare: a development framework for library and knowledge services in England 2015-2020 (national)
- Vision – NHS bodies, their staff, learners, patients and the public use the right knowledge and evidence, at the right time, in the right place, enabling high quality decision-making, learning, research and innovation to achieve excellent healthcare and health improvement.
Impact of this project/service
Customer: Feedback from users has been positive and constructive and clearly reveals that the content is relevant and useful.
Organisation: Some of the content from the HMIU is replicated in the monthly Board Report as confirmed by the Chief Executive and the Governance Manager
Library: The HMIU has raised the profile of the Library and the embedded role of the Innovation Scout.
Evaluation: Feedback is sought in every issue and, as well as posting the link to the update in the staff newsletter each month, the updates are added to the Library website and there is a regular distribution list who receive the update direct to their inbox. This includes the Chief Executive and other members of the executive team. The CEO has recorded his use of the content for the monthly Board Report.
Lessons learned: This has been a successful collaborative effort by two NHS library services to reach a difficult audience: health managers and executive teams. By working together, it has been possible to keep costs within a reasonable limit and save time and duplication. The update enabled us to raise the profile of the Library, in particular our expertise with literature searching, alerting and research.
It is always difficult to obtain feedback which demonstrates impact but some examples have been provided and some new requests to be included on the distribution list have been received.
The update is reliant on the search strategy devised by Roshanara and if she decided not to continue that could create difficulties as we have established an expectation amongst our users that the service will continue.
Sustainability / next steps? In order to address the reliance on another service to continue to provide the search strategy and to ensure continuity, the next step is to devise our own search strategy and to cast our net wider to gather relevant stories from different sources.
We will occasionally also produce a themed update, aligned to issues which are current within the Trust.
Contact details Laura Wilkes, Library and Knowledge Services Manager, West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Laura.wilkes@wsh.nhs.uk
Tel. 01284 713112
Date case study completed: 26.11.15
Implementing the NHS five year forward view: aligning policies with the plan
Source: Link to main document: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_publication_file/implementing-the-nhs-five-year-forward-view-kingsfund-feb15.pdf
Publication format: PDF (36 pages)
Date of publication: February 2015
Summary of driver: This is the implementation plan for the NHS Five Year Forward View, which was published October 2014 and proposes major change within the NHS over a five year timeframe. The implementation plan describes why the changes need to be made, makes practical proposals to remove barriers to healthcare and how the new implementation models can be supported. The report highlights the levels of funding required to meet this vision and the need for the NHS to have high-quality and consistent leadership.
Key features of driver:
The document lists four key drivers, each with recommendations for action and finishes with a summary of recommendations
How services are commissioned and paid for
- Innovations in commissioning and contracting – NHS commissioners to be supported by national bodies in order to achieve this
- Importance of investing in the development of system leaders
- Development of federation/networks/super partnerships (multispecialty community provider) to enable general practices to deliver a wider range of services
- Provision of proactive care in the community
- Integrated commissioning- combining CCG and NHS England funding
- NHS commissioners to work with interested general practices as pilot MCPs.
- Formation of primary and acute care systems- single organisations to provide NHS services (GP/hospital/mental health/community care) running as virtual or physical organisations
- Innovation in payment systems- capitated budgets/pooled budgets/integrated personal commissioning
How the NHS is regulated
- Improvements in quality of health and social care- CQC to survey patients and service users
- Whole-system intervention regime to support challenged health economies
- NHS England and Monitor should review current rules on procurement and tendering to enable creation of new care models
- Opportunity for local areas to have access to central legal advice
How improvements in care are delivered by local leaders
- Development of leaders at all levels in the NHS
- Providing all NHS staff with the skills and support requires to improve patient care
- Every NHS organisation to take responsibility for the development of leaders and providing staff with skills in quality improvement
- National bodies to develop explicit strategy for quality improvement
- Currently most NHS leaders are organisational leaders and the Five Year Forward View is aligned with system leaders
- Provider leadership- outlined in the Dalton review
How might a transformation fund contribute?
- King’s Fund has argued for a transformation fun d to help provide financial support through change
- Prime role is for transformation fun to pump-prime new care models whilst existing models are decommissioned
- Important to recognise that some health economies may gain, some may lose and new organisations may be created
- Looking to how mental health moved from hospital care to community services and lessons learned
Where next?
- Care models set out in the Five Year Forward View are a starting point and not the end of the story
- Commitment to real-time evaluation and learning
- Creation of vanguard sites to fast-track new care models
- Imbalance between the opportunities offered by the Five Year Forward View and the current situation of financial deficits/A&E pressures/waiting time performance
- National bodies have the responsibility to reinforce the idea that the delivery of the Five Year Forward View is as important an operational performance
Primary audience: NHS England, NHS Commissioners, NHS Providers
Impact on library policy/practice:
None of drivers are specifically aimed at libraries but there opportunities for libraries.
- The recommendation for ‘Leadership and improvement expertise’ when referring to the NHS becoming a learning organisation states ‘national support for improvement being provided through small teams of credible experts’. We are the credible experts in our field (p20).
- Vision of NHS becoming a learning organisation (as outlined in Berwick report 2013) is a great opportunity to expand and promote our skill sets and services (p20).
- Providing all NHS staff with the resources required to update their skills – literature search training/critical appraisal training/how to access information online, I order to improve patient care.
- Undertake literature searches on the relevant subjects and promote current awareness on leadership and community topics.
- Possibility of keeping GPs engaged with library and knowledge services.
Date last updated: February 2015
Due for review: December 2016
Group member responsible: LK
Promoting Excellence: Standards of Medical Education and Training.
Source: General Medical Council
Links: Link to main document
Publication format: PDF
Published: 15th July 2015.
Comes into effect: 1st January 2016
Summary of driver:
The General Medical Council have set out a series of standards expected of organisations responsible for the training and education of medical students and doctors.
The standards replace Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009) and The Trainee Doctor (2011).
Key features of driver:
10 standards for the management and delivery of education and training. The standards are organised into 5 themes.
- Learning, Environment and Culture.
The learning environment should be:
- Safe for patients
- Supportive for learners and educators
- Learning, education and training should be valued and supported by the organisation.
2. Education Governance & Leadership
The standards require that effective education governance, leadership and quality control processes exist for:
- Measuring the performance of education and training.
- Addressing any concerns related to patient safety or the standard of education and training.
- Ensuring the education and training is fair and upholds equality and diversity.
3. Supporting learners
Educational and pastoral support should be provided for learners to enable them to meet the curricula and the standards of good medical practice.
4. Supporting Educators
- Educators should have the knowledge, skills, resources and support to deliver effective education and training.
- They must be appropriately selected and managed according to their responsibilities.
5. Developing and implementing curricula and assessment.
Curricula and assessments (undergraduate and postgraduate) should be developed and implemented so that students and doctors will meet the requirements of their curricula, and the Good Medical Practice standards.
Primary audience: Medical schools, the deaneries and the Learning, Education and Training Boards.
Impact on library policy/practice:
None of the regulations are specifically aimed at libraries.
But theme 1 regulation R1.19 includes requirements for organisations to have the resources and facilities to deliver safe and relevant learning opportunities. The definition of resources and facilities includes IT systems for learners to access the curricula; libraries and knowledge services and physical spaces. The themes 2 and 3 also contain unspecific requirements for the provision of appropriate resources and facilities for the learners and educators to fulfil and deliver their curricula.
Depending on the setup and services offered by a library/ information service, they may be providing one or more of these aspects.
Libraries provide and manage the access to the information resources which support the academic side of training provision. They provide information literacy training sessions on how to use these resources, and also provide study space.
The library’s home organisation and stakeholders should be made aware that the library service is supporting the organisation to meet the General Medical Council’s requirements. Without the library’s resources and facilities the organisation is unlikely to be able to demonstrate that it appropriately supports the education programmes it provides. This would put the library in good stead when it comes to negotiating for funding and resources.
Librarians must consult the trainers and educators within their organisation to identify which resources and facilities they need to offer to be appropriate for the education being delivered.
LETBs are required to have systems and processes for monitoring the quality of teaching, support facilities and learning opportunities. Perhaps the library’s LQAF result could be included in the proof of the quality of its organisations’ education and training.
Date last updated: October 2017
Due for review: October 2018
Group member responsible: FG
State of Care Report 2014/15
Source: Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Link to main document
Link to 2013/2014 State of Care Report
Publication format: PDF (120 pages)
Date of publication: October 2015
Summary of driver: This is the sixth annual CQC report on the state of health and care services in England. It highlights that despite the challenges of increased need and tough financial demands, inspections show that improvement is possible. It outlines the need to look to the best to understand what works and why.
Key features of driver:
Despite pressures, many services are managing to maintain or improve quality.
- 50% had improved.
- Fewer than 7% had deteriorated further.
- All of these re-inspections took place within a year of the original rating.
- However, some people are receiving care that’s unacceptable. Of the providers rated by the end of May 2015, 7% were inadequate.
- Quality is variable with large differences in quality of care between different services and providers.
- Sometimes quality varies according to who you are or what you need. For example people with mental health needs and long-term conditions and some ethnic minority groups are less likely to report good experiences of care.
- Safety is the biggest concern: of the services we’ve rated so far, 13% of hospitals, 10% of adult social care services and 6% of GP practices were inadequate for safety.
The following are critical to quality improvement:
- Engaged leaders building a shared ownership of quality and safety.
- Staff planning that goes beyond simple numbers.
- Working together to address cross-sector priorities
A summary and infographic of the report findings are also available.
Primary audience: All health and social care providers in England, members of the public and other stakeholders.
Impact on library policy/practice: Libraries are a knowledge hub providing services such as evidence summaries, literature searching and current awareness which can be linked to challenges faced by the specific organisation. We can ensure that the best clinical and management knowledge is available to decision-makers in the organisation, in order to tackle the challenges identified in this report. Libraries are ideally placed to identify and disseminate best practice to assist health care organisations in providing quality care with limited resources.
Date last updated: December 2015
Due for review: October 2016
Group member responsible: TP
Spotlight on… categorising and tagging the MAP Tookit
In November 2014, we undertook a project to categorise and tag all the posts on the MAP Toolkit. This article explains why and how we did this.
Categories and tags in WordPress
The MAP Toolkit is hosted on WordPress.com, and one of the features of WordPress is the ability to use categories and tags on posts and pages.
Categories are generally broader in scope, and could be used to define the type of post, or a broad subject area. Generally, you’d use a small number of categories, perhaps one or two.
Tags can be more specific, and there is no limit to how many can be used to describe a post. Categories can be hierarchical, whereas tags cannot. Categories are like the chapter headings of a book, while tags are more like the index.
Why does this matter?
Categories and tags are entirely optional, but in the same way that subject headings can aid retrieval of articles from bibliographic databases, categories and tags can help locate information on a website.
There are also other things categories and tags can do in WordPress:
- RSS feeds can be created from any category or tag. For example http://www.lihnnhs.info/maptoolkit/category/drivers/feed/ provides an RSS feed of items in the category ‘drivers’ on the MAP Toolkit
- Google indexes category and tag archive pages (lists of posts), and this can increase hits to a site from search engines. Search engines can also use the categories and tags as internal links when crawling a site to ensure no pages are left out.
- You can link to lists of posts under a category or tag, so you could refer readers to previous posts on the same topic (e.g. ‘see our previous posts on education and training’).
- Tags can be displayed as a ‘tag cloud’, with more popular tags given greater prominence (we’ve added a tag cloud to the MAP Toolkit).
How did we do this on the MAP Toolkit?
As the MAP Toolkit had moved from a wiki to a WordPress site, it lacked any tags and had limited categorisation. I was tasked with looking at the content, applying consistent categories, and adding tags from scratch. It wasn’t very time-consuming to do, and once done it is easy for new posts to be categorised and tagged by the post author (in many cases using the list of popular tags that can be displayed when editing a post).
Jason Curtis
Shrewsbury and Telford Health Libraries
The Talent for Care: A National Strategic Framework to Develop the Healthcare Support Workforce
Source: Health Education England (HEE) and the Talent for Care programme partnership
Link to main document (supporting information available on a section of the HEE website)
Publication format: PDF
Date of publication: October 2014
Summary of driver:
Talent for Care is part of Health Education England’s Framework 15, a national guide to action in all aspects of workforce planning, education and training across health and care, and focuses on the support workforce (those in Agenda for Change roles banded 1-4 and their equivalents).
The support workforce makes up 40% of the total NHS workforce and provide around 60% of patient care, yet this group receives less than 5% of the national training budget.
Health Education England is working with various national, regional and local partners to change this picture, to increase investment in the support workforce and to spread good practice and innovation.
Key features of driver:
Talent for Care focuses on ten strategic intentions under the three primary themes of Get In, Get On and Go Further:
Get In:
- Broaden the ways into training and employment in the NHS, especially to attract more young people and improve diversity within the workforce
- Increase the chances for people to try new experiences of working in the NHS
- Engage more staff to act as NHS Ambassadors who can promote NHS careers to schools, colleges and local communities
Get On:
- Challenge and support every NHS employer and contractor to implement a development programme for all support staff that is over and above annual appraisals and mandatory training
- All new Healthcare Support Workers and Adult Social Care Workers to achieve the new Care Certificate and, for those that want it, a universally recognised Higher Care Certificate (as of October 2015, work on the Higher Care Certificate is on hold while the Care Certificate is embedded)
- Double the number of HEE funded or supported apprenticeships by March 2016 and establish an NHS Apprenticeship offer
Go Further:
- Simplify career progression with new roles and pathways to promotion, including more part-time higher education as a route into nursing and other registered professions
- Agree with employers and education providers a universal acceptance of prior learning, vocational training and qualifications
- Support talent development that identifies and nurtures people with the potential to go further, especially for those wanting to move into professional and registered roles
Making it happen
- The national Talent for Care programme partnership will support this framework with a national campaign. They will publish information, support pilot projects and spread good practice to continue building the engagement and commitment of all healthcare communities
Primary audience: LETBs, Education and Training departments, Trade Unions
Impact on library policy/practice:
Library workforce:
Whilst the strategy is mainly aimed at the support workforce providing care, there may be implications for the library workforce, with more emphasis on the development and training of para-professional staff, development of career pathways, and more recognition of Certification as a way into professional roles.
There may be a need to provide increased opportunities for work experience or placements within library services.
Library services:
There may be new roles and ways of working within health services that require changes to our membership criteria, such as more apprentices, placements or work experience candidates. There may also be an increase in support workers doing part-time higher education courses as a route into registered professions, and these may require more support for information literacy skills.
Library resources:
There may be a need to supply more knowledge resources at a suitable level for healthcare support workers, especially as they undertake more development and training. Once the Higher Care Certificate is launched, libraries may want to look at resources to support it.
Whilst healthcare support workers are not included as a named group in the ‘Increase in use’ metric of K4H, this is a group that is traditionally under-represented in library usage and there is an opportunity to promote libraries as ideally placed to help support them. This may be through other means than just books, and could include making our spaces available for informal meetings, provision of WiFi, provision of IT training facilities, or signposting to help and support. The challenge may be to translate this into metrics we can use to show our impact.
Date last updated: October 2015
Due for review: October 2016
Group member responsible: JC
Revalidation for nurses and midwives
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
Date of publication: October 2015
Summary of driver:
Revalidation is a process that all nurses and midwives need to engage with to demonstrate that they practise safely and effectively throughout their career. This section of the NMC website outlines the requirements for revalidation.
Key features of driver:
All nurses and midwives are currently required to renew their registration every three years. Revalidation strengthens the renewal process by introducing new requirements that focus on:
- up-to-date practice and professional development
- reflection on the professional standards of practice and behaviour as set out in the NMC Code and
- engagement in professional discussions with other registered nurses or midwives.
Revalidation is a continuous process that nurses and midwives will engage with throughout their career. It is not a point in time activity or assessment.
Revalidation is about promoting good practice across the whole population of nurses and midwives. It’s not an assessment of a nurse or midwife’s fitness to practise and it’s not intended to address bad practice amongst a small number of nurses and midwives.
The components of revalidation are to:
- Practise a minimum of 450 hours over the three years prior to the renewal of registration
- Undertake 35 hours of continuing professional development (CPD)
- Obtain five pieces of practice‐related feedback
- Record a minimum of five written reflections on the Code, CPD and practice related feedback
- Provide a health and character declaration
- Declare appropriate cover under an indemnity arrangement
- Gain confirmation, from a third party, that revalidation requirements have been met
This How to Revalidate booklet is useful for practical advice.
Primary audience: Nurses and midwives in NHS England.
Impact on library policy/practice: Library services are perfectly positioned to support revalidation locally. We can:
- provide dedicated print and electronic evidence resources to help nurses/midwives keep up-to-date
- provide training in information search skills so that nurses/midwives can develop their own skills
- provide training in Critical Appraisal skills so nurses-midwives can develop the skills to assess how robust and reliable original research is using appropriate tools
- conduct information searches on chosen subjects
- obtain journal articles & publications, which might be needed to stay abreast of developments in your field of expertise
- support Journal Club activity which enables groups to present and critique original research of interest and relevant to their specialty
- offer 24 hour access to library space, computers and printers
Date last updated: October 2015
Due for review: October 2016
Group member responsible: VT