MEDICAL GAS SYSTEMS
Practical learning imperative in medical gas landscape
With the ever-changing landscape of requirements, regulations, and engineering practice within healthcare, Michael Ell, Medical Gas Portfolio manager, and Mark Williams, lead medical gas trainer, both of Eastwood Park Training, explain why practical training, building on theoretical knowledge, is key to gaining competency in the specialist field of medical gas pipeline systems.
Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) 02-01 provides pivotal guidance to healthcare estate management and healthcare engineering personnel working in this specialist field, but understanding such guidance, and actually delivering what is set out in it, are two different things. Providing practical learning that follows the guidance in the HTM, allowing learners to take away real-life knowledge and experience, is imperative to ensuring compliance at all times. Tangible steps such as creating workstations that meet the needs of the work required, and encouraging networking with peers, and discussion on current issues facing Estates teams, are all part of the inclusive learning experience that comes with practically applied training. At Eastwood Park Training, not only do
we provide this live, hands-on experience, but we also appreciate that across all Trusts there will be a range of different equipment used, both old and new, and from a range of manufacturers. That is why we provide a plethora of different equipment for learners to work on, so they will be familiar with many different pieces of equipment when they return to their workplace. One such example of this is our medical gas alarms training, where
we showcase these different models, and learners get to grips with their functions. This is a vital part of the hands-on training, and one that has already saved Trusts money in call-outs and maintenance.
Practical training: why do we need it? As a starting point, HTM 02-01 states that ‘it is essential that all training courses include practical elements […].’ (HTM 02-01 Part B, section 7, paragraph 7.9). In the context of this article, the term ‘practical elements’ should not be taken as just hands-on practical activities using tools. Instead, the term is used to encompass a wide range of tasks and skills, such as the calculation of actual consumptions, creation of daily and weekly check sheets, and the planning and undertaking of shutdowns to enable pipelines to be broken into. It should never be assumed that a learner can competently undertake a task, which is why the process of demonstration, practice, and assessment, is crucial to the development of skills and confidence. The creation of workstations to enable learners to practise techniques and then be assessed is critical to the process of practical training. This can vary from a relatively basic task, such
Eastwood Park’s new well- equipped Training Centre at its Falfield site in Gloucestershire.
as the setting up of a backfeed kit and connection, to more complex activities such as changing desiccant in dryer columns.
The value of practice It is clear that the value of practice, and carrying out tasks on a safe, real, live system, with no patient involved, are critical to the development of Authorised and Competent Persons. Such practice enables individuals to gain the necessary experience prior to working on a live system with patients connected, which is supported by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) guidance. While developments within HTM 02-01
may require a different methodology to Authorised and Competent Persons’ national qualifications in the future, the need for organisations to ensure that staff are competent is essential to meet the requirements of the HSE. On-the-job training is a valid method of developing skills, and this is recognised by the HSE, which says: “ ‘On-the-job’ training
April 2023 Health Estate Journal 19
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