Academy Projects
Evidence-based Interventions
The Academy has continued to lead the work on the Evidence-based Interventions programme in partnership with NHSE, NICE, Patients Association and NHS Confed. The early part of 2022 saw the team working intensively on a series of nine online engagement sessions with more than 500 stakeholders.
The sessions were designed to allow clinicians, commissioners and patients to have their view on the proposed changes to 13 interventions. The work, which was intense at times, was led by the Academy’s clinical fellow, Dr Rachel Weaver and supported by Academy and NHSE colleagues.
The resulting document will be published on the Academy-hosted EBI website in October and become part of NHS statutory guidance by the end of the year.
Patient safety
Following the launch of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy in 2019, the Academy provided the NHS Patient Safety Syllabus, with the first two e-learning modules available here. Uptake of the modules has been good with excellent feedback received. Currently we are updating the two modules in line with feedback received and also providing sector-specific content in primary care, mental health, maternity care, acute care, and for management and administrative staff. The intention is to create a common understanding of the systems factors that underpin patient safety and move more toward proactive identification and mitigation of risk, as well as investigating patient safety incidents when they occur.
Provision of the training for the higher three levels of the syllabus will be in the hands of training providers, and a procurement exercise will be completed shortly. Providers will need to be accredited against the syllabus in order to ensure that there is consistency, and they will be able to determine the methods of delivering the training.
All NHS staff are being encouraged to complete levels 1 and 2, with the Patient Safety Specialists in each organisation receiving training in level 3 next year.
Broad Based Training
The Academy hosts the governance group that oversees Broad Based Training (BBT). This is a two-year training programme that provides post-foundation doctors competitive entry to six-month placements in each of four specialty areas: general practice, internal medicine, paediatrics, and psychiatry.
On completion of the two years, trainees then move into one of the four parent specialties, and an external review found evidence of greater certainty of specialty choice in BBT trainees compared to others who have not had such a broad range of experience. Initially hosted in England, this programme is currently running only in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with very good recruitment rates in both countries.
An updated curriculum was introduced in 2021 and feedback one year on shows that it has been well received.