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TRAINING


Developing competence, boosting expertise and skills


John Thatcher, CEO at Eastwood Park, discusses the real value of training, and sets out the key elements that he believes have distinguished the Gloucestershire based non-clinical healthcare training centre for the past 48 years.


When working on yet another hospital maintenance task, whether in the switch or plant room, or mainstream medical locations, I recognise that it is easy to lose perspective on the value of the job in hand. However, as an experienced engineer myself, I know that for, say, a healthcare engineer or skilled estates technician working on the hospital estate, taking the patient’s perspective on elements such as the safety or cleanliness of the site, the importance of the job is quickly brought back into focus. I frequently consider this, not least as we read regularly of the huge pressures that the NHS is under, yet it is a service we, our family, and friends, cannot do without. We want to be reassured that all aspects of the experience are good, and that everything is working - whether that’s the lift taking a relative to the emergency department, or the medical gas valves in the theatre. As a training facility for non- clinical staff working mainly in hospitals, at Eastwood Park we consider the practical aspects of our training to be vitally important in developing the skills needed by those working in our hospitals today, in order to improve that ‘patient journey’, by delivering the best patient care and ensuring patient safety.


Patient journey focus


Faulty medical devices or equipment, power failures, monitoring of air quality in theatres, poor water quality, and fire safety, are typical of the issues faced by EBME, hospital engineering, and estates teams. With the potential for significant impact on patient safety within such critical hospital services, properly managing, maintaining, and testing, technical resources and services in these areas is – as we all know – paramount. The ability to perform this job well, however, depends on the competencies of both staff and management, but what is really involved in developing a competent team? An individual is, after all, either competent or not to carry out the role of a Competent, Authorised, Responsible, or Designated Person. There is no half-way house.


Warren Duffy and Andrew Walch (left and far right respectively), Estates Operation engineers at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, with Brenden Caulfield, site supervisor, Tameside General Hospital.


Competent or not?


What is competence, however? The HTMs and other guidance do not define it. I would say that it is demonstrated through the mix of knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes effectively applied to the standards expected in the workplace, under all the constraints and pressures in that workplace. Since competence is an infinite variable, it does, however, start with understanding the limitations of our own knowledge or skill. Standardised and proven training is an essential platform from which competence is developed; bespoke competence grown from localised knowledge and requirements risks over- confidence through blindness to broader or more fundamental factors. Learners returning from training should be expected to return to the workplace armed with intelligent questions rather than necessarily all the answers. This surely is a positive, healthy, and ultimately necessary outcome? Those who appreciate what they may not know have a far better prospect of knowing where to look for the answers.


Hands-on approach


In Eastwood Park’s UK training centre much of the training provided is ‘hands on’, with learners challenged by practical exercises or tasks in replica hospital environments. I have always valued this, as I strongly believe that there is a huge benefit to learners from making mistakes in a safe learning environment without endangering themselves or patients. This also makes the learning more transferable to the workplace, and should develop competence.


Our site – not unlike many hospital estates – is an environment not without its challenges, as many who have attended training with us will be aware. Keeping the equipment up to date is challenging, and not an insignificant investment. However it is also an essential part of the learning that we deliver, yet can sometimes be taken for granted.


Practical skills need to be practised “How do apprentices/inexperienced engineers gain the confidence and


March 2017 Health Estate Journal 53


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