Anjali Praveen
Moorfields Eye Hospital - NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Title: The development of non-registered staff in ophthalmic setting: A new innovation in practice
Biography
Biography: Anjali Praveen
Abstract
Globally there is a lack of defined career pathways and associated training needs for non-registered staff. Due to capacity and demands, there has been noticeable need in upskilling healthcare assistants and technicians to perform skills previously undertaken by ophthalmic nurses. The enhancement of these new roles requires adequate ophthalmic training and education to maintain better patient outcomes, patient experience, safety and quality of care. Audits surrounding the provision of educational provision for this professional group provide reassurance that there is ophthalmic competence and the quality is of a high standard. Findings from an exploratory research study at Moorfields will be presented. Opportunities and challenges for future healthcare will be discussed. In this paper, healthcare assistants and ophthalmic technicians will be referred to as non-registered staff due to names used interchangeably. Non registered staff are a vital part of delivering frontline compassionate care- but they often have little access to training and personal development. A national health care review reported that there are 1.3 million healthcare support workers (HCSW) and 500000 registered nurses in England. The report emphasized on the importance of education and training to reflect the 21st century health care landscape and enhance delivery of high quality care. This led Moorfields to develop and institute a City and Guilds accredited Certificate in Ophthalmic care training programme in October 2015. The course equips HCSW with ophthalmic knowledge and skills for safe and effectively care delivery. In order to ascertain if this programme was effective, an exploratory study was conducted in May 2017. The findings of this study will be presented followed by a discussion on the implications for practice and future recommendations. The paper will also highlight the intergral role of quality, and competence. A proposed model for training and professional development will be discussed and potential opportunities and threats conferred.