Abstract
Background:
There is limited understanding of the confidence of nurses and allied health care professional management of acute medical problems on rehabilitation wards. Health Education England (HEE) has developed a teaching resource named ‘Bitesized Teaching’, originally developed for mental health staff. We aimed to review ward staff access to teaching and implement a quality improvement project to improve access to teaching in a multidisciplinary team setting.
Methods:
An questionnaire was administered to staff to understand the frequency of teaching they receive. A ‘bitesize teaching’ scenario was selected. The session covered the signs, symptoms, and basic ward level management that can be expected from ward staff. An anonymous pre-session and post-session feedback questionnaire was distributed.
Results
18 members of ward staff completed the initial questionnaire. The majority of participants had infrequent teaching (once every 3 months). All expressed an interest in bitesize teaching. A hypolgycaemia bitesize teaching session was selected based on staff feedback. 5/12 members of staff completed the pre-session questionnaire and selected ‘not confident at all’ or ‘slightly confident’ response to the recognition and initial management of hypoglycaemia. Post-session only 8/11 participant reported ‘extremely confident’ or ‘quite confident’ in this domain.
Conclusion
The ‘Bitesized Teaching’ approach was considered an acceptable form of teaching and well-received by the multidisciplinary team in a rehabilitation ward setting. The majority of ward staff expressed an interest for this form of teaching to be incorporated into a weekly schedule in the long term and can be beneficial for new and existing members of staff.