24 January 2012
Nurses Follow NICE Blood Clot Guidelines
Thousands more nurses and healthcare assistants are following the NICE venous thromboembolism (VTE) guidelines, following a drive by the Royal College of Nursing to raise awareness of the “silent killer”.
It is estimated that 25,000 people who are admitted to hospital die from preventable VTE every year, leading the Department of Health to make prevention a priority across the NHS for the forthcoming years.
In order to improve adherence to the NICE VTE guideline, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) developed a free and interactive e-learning module, focusing on the practical aspects of blood clot prevention.
The work of the RCN has been submitted to NICE for the 2012 Shared Learning Awards, which will be take place at the NICE annual conference in Birmingham on the 15-16 May.
The module aims to encourage nursing staff to routinely assess patients for their VTE risk, to routinely educate patients about VTE prevention, and to increase the number of nursing staff correctly fitting preventative devices such as anti-embolism stockings.
The module content is divided into four key, stand-alone, learning sections each designed to take no longer than 20 minutes to finish. This enables nursing staff to dip in and out of the learning as time permits and to complete the sections in an order that suits their individual learning needs, either through a web browser or a smart phone.
Since launching a year ago, over 11,000 users have accessed the resource, with individual feedback from nursing staff showing that the module has been useful in helping them carry out the guideline.
Geraldine Cunningham, Head of RCN Learning and Development Institute and the RCN said: “The rapid up-take of the RCN's online learning resource and positive evaluation by individuals and health care providers is evidence of how this e-Learning solution has enabled the RCN to successfully meet this challenge and contribute to the national mission to reduce the number of preventable deaths from hospital-acquired VTE.”
Lynda Bonner, Consultant Nurse in Thrombosis and Anticoagulation at Kings College Hospital and lead for the National Nursing and Midwifery Network for VTE Prevention, said: “The RCN's VTE prevention e-learning module is freely, easily, and quickly accessible via the home page of the RCN website.
”It is especially useful for frontline staff who provide direct hands on care of patients at risk of VTE. It is a valuable and significant addition to national VTE prevention resources.”
"It's all very worthwhile. Make no mistake, it will help save many lives,” added Beverley Hunt, Professor of Thrombosis & Haemostasis at King's College and Medical Director of the thrombosis charity Lifeblood.
Share your story with us for a chance to present your organisation's work on putting NICE guidance into practice at the NICE conference in May 2012.
Shortlisted organisations receive free conference places. There may also be opportunities for further national and local press coverage for your organisation.
The closing date for submissions to be considered for the 2012 Awards is Tuesday 31st January 2012.