Training for information
In an organisation of the size and complexity of the National Health
Service working in the fast-moving world of healthcare, it is self
evident that training, learning, and continuing professional development
are of paramount importance in achieving its aims. And indeed, the
Service provides, or is host to the provision of, training for a
bewildering array of professions and skills — doctors, engineering
apprentices, nurses, radiographers, dental surgery assistants,
dieticians — the list goes on and on. But, sadly, so too does the list
of those staff for whom the NHS does very little, or if it does anything
at all, without any sense of structure and purpose — receptionists,
booking clerks, computer staff, chaplains, and managers all spring to
mind. For an organisation that relies upon more than a million staff, it
is remarkable that such gaps have existed for so long and it is,
therefore, all the more encouraging to know that they have finally been
recognised, and that steps are being taken to fill them. In his article,
Professor Bob Fryer describes the twin strategic aims of the
about-to-be-opened NHS University, to draw both on the work of
‘corporate’ and ‘traditional’ universities, but also to draw heavily on
elearning and the creation of a ‘virtual campus’. The possibility may
soon exist to cater for the training needs of all NHS staff.
So much for the wider picture, against which the more specific area
of training in medical informatics must be seen. The NHS Plan
sets out a vision of a health service that is totally reliant upon the
speedy and accurate transmission of data, both clinical and
administrative, across the whole Service and, increasingly, into Social
Services. Information for health, Building the information core
and Delivering 21st century IT support for the NHS all
emphasise the critical importance of information to the NHS, and an
increasing sense of urgency at the centre to provide it. Central
endeavour, however, as events have so often shown, is not enough. Staff
have to be provided to understand, design, and implement the new
approach, not just in a few centres, but across the Service. Even more
challenging, staff across the Service have to be trained to use the new
systems and, most important of all, to understand their essential
purpose in the effective treatment of patients. This is a huge task,
that embraces the training of IT professionals, instructing managers (of
all sorts) in the integral role of information in the proper exercise of
their craft, explaining to the many thousands of staff across the
Service just how vital is their role and bringing the Service’s many
millions of patients to understand how IT can play a substantial role in
their return to health.
The remaining articles in this issue of the Journal give an
update on some of these major areas where so much work is necessary if
IT is to perform its proper role in the years immediately ahead. In his
article, Martin Sotheran, Head of National Health Informatics
Development of the NHSIA, describes the strands of work being undertaken
to support the development of IM&T capacity in the Service — a vital
task given the shortage of trained IM&T staff, and their marketability
in the private sector. Dr Glyn Hayes reports on the creation, in which
he has played a leading role, of the United Kingdom Council for Health
Informatics Professions. As a professional registration and regulatory
body, it will provide for healthcare informatics, and the public, the
same functions and safeguards as, for example, the General Medical
Council provides for medicine. In their article, Mr Rick Harrison and
his colleagues from the RAFT Institute, Mount Vernon Hospital, look at
another aspect of the growing importance of IT, that of its availability
to, and comprehension by, junior medical staff. And finally, Dr
Persephone Doupi, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for
Information and Communication Technology, in Stakes, Finland and
Research Fellow at the Institute of Medical Informatics, Erasmus Medical
Centre, Rotterdam, describes how extracts from the EPR can be married to
auxiliary healthcare information available on the Internet to produce
tailored patient-education content.
In this wide-ranging survey it has only been possible for the
Journal to look at some of the major strands in the immense problem,
not of installing or implementing the ICT systems that must form so
integral a part of the NHS in the future, but of persuading staff of
their value, enabling them to appreciate their potential and to be able
to utilise them fully.
Michael Fairey |
