Hi Everyone well this is the first post for the website and its mostly an introduction as to what we are trying to achieve.
What you can expect from this website is a one stop shop for all things ED education, this is going to be mostly aimed at nurses/HCA's/ODP's working in ED as oppose to ED clinicians however the content should be useful in some way to all.
As an ED nurse historically you may have been placed on an ED course or as they used to be called the ENB course- this was a national course where on completion you were an 'A+E' Nurse'. These courses however vanished when academia became the overarching qualification in clinical nursing.
There were some excellent academic ED courses but these of course cost money and that is rarely present in the current system.
So without further ado I introduce you to self development, as nurses we have always been used to portfolio and reflection but now we have to be smarter with this. We have use these tools to develop and not simply to pass a course. NMC revalidation is great and clear but you have to do the work- My advice is to combine the need for revalidation with actually developing yourself in your chosen speciality.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Emergency Nursing Association (ECA) have produced an ED nurse competency document on two levels, which I think is absolutely awesome.
Level 1- For the newly qualified nurse in ED or nurse with limited experience and new to ED.
Level 2- For the nurse who has been in ED over a year or senior ED nurses developing their personal portfolio.
You'll find a copy of both Levels at the bottom and every post we publish, every podcast we create etc, will have a code associated which is linked in some way to the ECA competency document. This is where you can get savvy- If you decide you want to learn more about CPAP as you had a patient with it on your last shift.
1- Write a short reflection on the patient (1/2 a page)
2. Watch the CPAP video on our video section
3. Jot down on your reflection what you have learned
4. Find the relevant section on the competency document and link your learning and reflection to that so that when your next appraisal is due you can present all of the self learning you have done or even better at your job interview for the next band up.
Ok I hope that makes sense please leave a comment or get in touch if you have any questions. The next blog will be on the SBAR communication tool and you'll find this useful as our blogs from now on will based on the SBAR format.
Thanks
Ash :)
Level 1 Competency- https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/pub-005883
Level 2 Competency- https://www.rcn.org.uk/professional-development/publications/pub-005923
