Getting it right - education and training for sepsis

Health Education England (HEE) is to make further changes to sepsis education and training for all health and care staff to help save lives. It is crucial that all health and care staff are able to spot the early signs of this terrible condition and to provide appropriate, timely, high quality care.

This  move follows a research exercise, to help better understand what resources are already in use and where gaps exist. The report 'Getting it right - the current state of sepsis education and training for healthcare staff across England', gives full recommendations to the system.

Professor Lisa Bayliss Pratt, Director of Nursing and Deputy Director of Education and Quality, Health Education England said:

High quality education and training is key to enabling our workforce to keep one step ahead of this terrible condition.

This report provides us with many helpful recommendations on how we can continue to improve the education and training across the whole NHS, so that all health and care staff can spot the early warning signs of Sepsis and take appropriate action, which should lead to saving patients’ lives.

Early detection is key to saving lives. A delay in recognising the symptoms of sepsis or not providing the appropriate treatment has led to avoidable patient harm which in some instances has led to unacceptable tragic outcomes for patients and their loved ones

The report includes a summary of the work we have undertaken this year:

• e-learning package “Think Sepsis: the identification and management of sepsis in primary care”
• Think Sepis film that signposts viewers to current learning material
• Think Sepsis: Identifying and managing sepsis in paediatrics

Recommendations

For Health Education England

• Working with the Royal College of General Practitioner’s (RCGP) clinical lead for sepsis and other relevant stakeholders,undertake the work necessary to ensure the availability of a sepsis educational package for residential and care home staff.
• Drawing on existing HEE educational and training resources to produce a sepsis educational package targeted at management and executive teams.
• Ensure that training resources and training strategies with proven effectiveness are promoted and shared across the system.

For healthcare providers

• Update all sepsis educational and training resources in accordance with the NICE guidance for sepsis.
• Develop strategies to ensure that all their staff members are trained in the recognition and management of sepsis to a level appropriate for their individual needs.
• Ensure that training reaches all healthcare staff, not just those who are undertaking a formal training programme or attending regular staff inductions, for example consultants, staff grade doctors and associate specialists, nursing staff, allied health professionals and support staff.
• Consider introducing ‘sepsis champions’ who take ownership of training strategies and are responsible for their maintenance, development and monitoring of effectiveness. Different Trusts will consider different models, for example, the sepsis champion could rotate to different departments on a six-monthly basis.