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IV Therapy Passport
The IV Therapy Passport is an agreed approach and pathway through intravenous (IV) medication administration training and assessment. It has been developed and designed through collaboration with stakeholders from health care organisations and higher education institutes across London.
The pathway supports health care professionals (HCP) in gaining an IV Therapy Passport which enables that person to transfer between organisations in London with their IV skills, without the need to retrain.
Although designed and developed in London, the pathway has the potential to be rolled out across England. The IV Therapy Passport is endorsed by The Royal College of Nursing until June 2023 and is available free of charge.
The passport is evidence of the HCP’s learning, assessment, and proficiency in IV therapy. On completion, the HCP can practise, develop their proficiencies as their role changes and transfer their passport with them as they move roles subsequently.
As the HCP transfers between organisations, they will identify with their educator / manager if and where their IV therapy skills need to develop or be expanded to meet the requirements of the new role.
Who is the IV Therapy Passport for?
The passport is designed for registered and student health care professionals caring for infants, children, young people and adults, whose role requires the administration of intravenous medication for patients. Healthcare professionals can access the pathway and passport at a range of points in their career. These may be as a/an:
- pre-registration student such as a student nurse or midwife
- internationally recruited healthcare professional
- registrant after registration with a professional body
- existing member of the workforce to upskill.
The IV Therapy Passport pathway
The pathway to the passport is comprised of three steps as illustrated below:
Step 1 - Access Learning
The IV Therapy Passport programme of e-learning is on the HEE Elearning for Healthcare hub (elfh). This is free to access for health care professionals working within NHS organisations, charities, social care and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and is accessible for-profit organisations by arrangement.
Covid-19 update: this e-learning has been made free of charge.
This programme of e-learning provides the full curriculum and is the preferred route to access the learning required for the passport. Read more about the IV Therapy Passport via the elfh programme webpage and access the e-learning via the elfh hub.
Step 2 - Assess Knowledge
Assessment of knowledge is via e-assessment on the IV Therapy Passport hub – this is the standardised gateway to practice learning and assessment. A drug calculation e-assessment is included.
Step 3 - IV Practice Learning and Assessment
The practice learning and assessment component involves the HCP participating in supervised clinical practice and assessment of proficiency with an assessor. A set of core proficiencies must be achieved alongside certain optional proficiencies, selected to be relevant to a HCP’s current role.
The practice learning and assessment component has become available in digital format to a small number of early adopters – it is now hosted on a digital online platform accessed via a browser by desktop, tablet or mobile device. The platform enables the practice assessment to be recorded digitally – this becomes the HCP’s IV Therapy Passport.
The digital IV Therapy Passport is available initially to early adoption sites, prior to a wider roll out across London (scheduled for winter 2022/spring 2023). Organisations, pending adoption, will continue to use the paper-based practice learning and assessment component of the IV Therapy Passport. Version 3 of the paper-based ‘IV Therapy Passport Step 3 Practice Learning and Assessment' was updated earlier this year and is available to download / use (see below).
Legacy documents will always be considered a valid passport and means of evidencing training and assessment to transfer between organisations.
Early adoption of the Digital IV Therapy Passport (autumn 2022)
A small number of trusts across London will become early adoption sites for the Digital IV Therapy Passport. Learning for this early adoption phase will inform subsequent sequential rollout. A range of Digital IV Therapy Passport resources, including user guides and videos, are available for your use. Please email CapitalNurse if you would like:
- more information
- to express interest in participating in the phase two rollout and beyond (aimed at providers and HEIs).
Step 1 – access e-learning
The elearning sessions (step 1) are ‘bite-sized’ interactive learning sessions that work well on a variety of mobile and static devices. The seven sessions are:
1. IV Medication Administration – a complex process
2. The IV Route
3. Vascular Access Devices
4. Risks and Complications of IV Therapy
5. Fluids and Electrolytes in IV Therapy
6. Preparation and Administration of IV Medication
7. Drug Calculations in IV Therapy
Learners are encouraged to access the sessions in the above order so the learning and new knowledge links together optimally.
Each session takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and the e-assessment approximately 20 minutes, with the exception of the drug calculations e-assessment which may take longer. Time required to complete these modules may vary according to learning styles and experience.
Each section of a session must be completed entirely, which includes completing the knowledge checks. A purple indicator at the top of the screen, and on the home page, indicates progress through each section.
If a section is marked as incomplete, learners will be guided to review the section to see which parts were not opened or which knowledge checks were not completed.
Step 2 – assess knowledge (e-assessments)
Most of the e-assessments (step 2) have a pass mark of 80 per cent and learners are expected to achieve this within three attempts.
The drug calculations e-assessment has a pass mark of 100 per cent, as reliable accuracy in this aspect of practice is considered essential. Again, learners are expected to achieve this within three attempts. Learners should use a calculator and can refer to the drug calculations formulae document (you can download this via the end of the drug calculations e-learning).
If a learner fails an e-assessment, they should access support from a local educator to resolve misunderstanding prior to a further attempt.
When all seven e-learning sessions and related e-assessments have been completed, the learner can access their two certificates. These can be downloaded or printed by selecting the certificate icon next to the relevant folder or via ‘My Activity’.
Elearning for Healthcare is free to access for the NHS, social care, charitable healthcare providers and universities (the latter two via OpenAthens). Some NHS organisations choose to access Elearning for Healthcare via AICC links to their Learning Management System. Email support@e-lfh.org.uk for more information.
Elearning for Healthcare has some reporting functionality to enable educators / managers to view their activity. Organisations may also be able to access ‘Tableaux’ for reporting – email support@e-lfh.org.uk for more information.
Step 1 and Step 2 must be completed before progressing to Step 3.
Completion of Step 1 (access e-learning) and Step 2 (assess knowledge), covering all seven sessions and related e-assessments, are recorded within the ‘Record of Learning and Knowledge Assessment’ and can be found:
- on the digital IV Therapy Passport platform (to be made available later in the year)
- in the paper-based IV Therapy Passport Step 3 Practice Learning and Assessment – see below.
Progress to practice learning and assessment is authorised by the learner’s educator / manager by reviewing evidence of Steps 1 and 2, as well as completion of all the listed ‘Pre-requisites to Supervised Clinical Practice’. Pre-requisites include familiarisation with medicine management policy and infusion device training.
Pre-requisites, instructions for supervised clinical practice and practice assessment of proficiencies are detailed on the digital IV Therapy Passport platform or in the paper-based IV Therapy Passport Step 3 Practice Learning and Assessment (see below).
When all the required proficiencies have been achieved, the learner will reach the ‘sign off’ stage. Learners will need to complete a ‘declaration of proficiency’ to complete this process, detailed on the digital IV Therapy Passport platform or in the paper-based IV Therapy Passport Step 3 Practice Learning and Assessment.
For nurses working in critical care, there is specialist standardised teaching on the administration of IV medication – this is Pan-London Critical Care Intravenous Therapy.
Pre-requisites – staff need to:
be deemed competent to administer IV medication by their organisation.
complete an associated competency assessment for practice learning and assessment.
For further information visit Pan London critical care intravenous therapy.
Access the Critical Care IV Therapy e-learning
CapitalNurse’s shared vision to ‘get nursing right for London, ensuring that London has the right number of nurses, with the right skills in the right place, working to deliver excellent nursing wherever it is needed by the people of London’ was the catalyst for this work alongside stakeholder feedback on the challenges around staff transferring with IV skills and the frequent requirement for retraining.
The project, which began in 2018, was ambitious in engaging widely with London’s healthcare providers (the NHS, charitable and independent sector) and higher education institutes (HEIs), alongside CapitalMidwife, to ensure broad stakeholder representation and to engage experts in the field.
With such broad engagement, the project has been able to consider and meet the needs of all adult and children's nurses and midwives in all healthcare settings.
From this engagement, an IV Therapy pathway was shaped from the evaluation of stakeholders’ requirements and recommendations. Four workstreams were established, enabling stakeholders, all of whom were involved in IV Therapy training and education within their organisations, to contribute to components of the pathway where they had expertise.
From these workstreams, authors, editors and reviewers were identified. These subject matter experts have shaped and created the programme of e-learning, the practice learning and assessment document, and the entire pathway.
Two phases of testing were implemented to test both the e-learning content and functionality and the practice learning and assessment component with nurses and midwives in hospital and community settings across London.
Simultaneously, a steering group and several senior leadership sponsors for the project were identified to promote and to provide governance for the work.
With thanks to the following organisations for their collaboration and contribution to developing the IV Therapy Passport.
- Ashford and St Peters Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Barts Health NHS Trust
- BUPA Cromwell Hospital
- CapitalMidwife
- Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
- Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- CLIC Sargent
- Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
- Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Evelina London Children’s Healthcare, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
- Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
- Greenwich University
- Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
- Haringey and Islington CCG
- Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
- Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
- London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
- Middlesex University
- North Middlesex University Hospitals NHS Trust
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust
- Royal College of Nursing
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- St Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
- University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Whittington Health NHS Trust