News
NHS to deploy national system for elearning
22 February 2008
A joint initiative between the Department of Health, NHS Connecting
for Health and the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) project will provide
elearning for all NHS employees in England with a staff record on ESR.
This will be achieved through the National Learning Management System
(NLMS) which will be provided at no cost to local NHS organisations.
The new system is expected to offer huge benefits to NHS
organisations seeking to offer education and training online. It will
also enable NHS Connecting for Health to support the deployment and
upgrade of National Programme applications and services to the NHS by
offering elearning resources in a timely way to end-users, managers and
others across the NHS.
Linking the NLMS to the Electronic Staff Record will make it possible
for anyone with an ESR profile to access elearning resources and
programmes that are offered at a national level. Successful completion
of these programmes will be recorded on the individual learning records
of NHS staff. If staff have previously undertaken elearning using a
different learning management system, it will also be possible for that
learning to be recorded on their individual learning records.
Employees will be able to access elearning content away from work and
managers will be able to check on learner progress and course completion
at local, strategic health authority and national levels. This will
provide managers with an overview of learning undertaken and enable
effective staff development.
The new system will be piloted from June 2008 and is expected to be
made available nationally by September 2008. According to ESR, national
elearning content will eventually only be available through NLMS and NHS
organisations are expected to migrate to the system when their current
elearning contracts expire.
Dr Philip Candy, National Director of Education, Training and
Development for NHS Connecting for Health, a principal partner in the
procurement and deployment of the new National Learning Management
System, said; “This represents an important development for everyone
working within the NHS. It will allow NHS staff to indicate their
training needs, to undertake elearning at their own convenience, and to
maintain a portable record of that learning throughout their careers.”
Dr Candy added, “We look forward to working closely with colleagues
in the ESR project team to deploy this enhanced functionality across the
NHS and supporting chief executives and chief information officers who
have the responsibility for ensuring that the local infrastructure and
capacity exists to support end users. And of course we will continue to
support education, training & development practitioners across the NHS
in the delivery of training and development that supports high-quality
patient-led healthcare”.
Further information
The NHS Electronic Staff Record:
www.esrsolution.co.uk/
NHS Connecting for Health Education, Training & Development
www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/etd
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