10 November 2011
RCGP Launches e-Learning Course on Self Care
The benefits of encouraging patients to self care are explored in an e-learning course launched by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
The course aims to help change the culture of dependency in the NHS by equipping health professionals with the skills needed to encourage and empower patients to self care. It is specifically focused on minor ailments.
Developed by the RCGP in partnership with the Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB) and funded by NHS North West, the new e-learning course is freely available to all RCGP members, GPs and other primary care practitioners who register on the RCGP Online Learning Environment.
Drs Clare Etherington1and Fiona Baskett2 were the lead-authors involved in writing the course, working in partnership with patient representatives.
Professor Nigel Sparrow, Chair of the RCGP Professional Development Board and co-chair of the steering group that informed the self-care e-learning, said: "As health professionals I believe it is our duty to provide education and support to our patients and the wider community to ‘self-care’. The RCGP’s new online course is aimed at facilitating this. It is important for both patients and GPs to improve shared decision making to increase patient confidence and develop more effective use of primary care."
Susan Summers, Assistant Director of Quality Assurance and Self-care at NHS North West Strategic Health Authority, said: "If we are to halt the rise and prevalence of long term conditions, focus on prevention and upstream activity, including minor ailments, is critical – self-care is absolutely the catalyst for this, and this is why NHS North West felt it so important to fund the RCGPs’ new online module. We are proud to have been involved and are sure the course will further the reach of self-care."
Anthony Chuter, lay-chair of the RCGPs’ Patient Partnership Group said: "As someone who has learnt to self manage a long term condition with the help of my GP and consultants, I know just how much difference this could also make to others managing short term periods of illness. I am glad that health professionals are getting further support in encouraging patients like me to self-care."
Gopa Mitra, co-chair of the online course steering group and director of policy and public affairs at PAGB said: "We are doing this because our research over the last two decades shows that GPs, nurses and other health professionals have an enormous role to play in empowering patients to have the confidence to know when self-care is appropriate and when they need to seek medical help. I am delighted that the RCGP has enabled our common vision to become a reality and NHS North West has played such a valuable role in funding it."
The RCGP also recently launched a tool to help GPs and their teams to enhance the care of patients with long term conditions such as diabetes. Care Planning – Improving the Lives of People with Long Term Conditions focuses on people with long term physical health problems and provides guidance to help GPs and their teams better support such patients in gaining more control over their health and improving the quality of their lives.
The Self Care for Minor Ailments e-learning is available at http://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=80
FURTHER INFORMATION
RCGP Press office – 020 3188 7574/7575/7576
Out of hours: 0203 188 7659
NOTES
- Dr Clare Everington is a GP in Harrow. She is a GP trainer; GP tutor and a MRCGP; CSA; and iMAP examiner. She is the News and Views editor for Innovait. Her particular interests are Womens Health, Paediatrics and Prescribing.
- Dr Fiona Baskett is a GP, clinical lecturer and medical writer. In 2009 she passed iMAP MRCGP. She is currently a sessional GP and Appraiser within the Severn Deanery.