Education for Health Logo

The Athenaeum
10 Church Street
Warwick
CV34 4AB
Email


Charity Reg No: 1048816
Company Reg No: 3090774

Chairman: Dr Jonathan Shapiro
MA (Cantab), MB, ChB, MRCGP

Taking Action
Quarterly e-Newsletter -
Summer 2008

With our compliments....

As you might expect of the largest international charity that trains health professionals to make a real difference to the lives of patients with long term conditions our impact in 2007 was significant.  It’s with great delight therefore that we are able to update you on developments during our 20th year: http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/about_us/about_us.asp#impact1

As a subscriber to Taking Action you may already know that Education for Health is a registered educational charity, is accredited and validated by the Open University, and that every single course is evidence based and developed by practising clinicians at the top of their field.

You may not know that more than 6000 health professionals now subscribe to Taking Action or that Education for Health now delivers more locally delivered learning right into the heart of multidisciplinary teams than train in our regional centres.  An important contributor to this is the growing numbers of subscribers who are arranging and facilitating Education for Health courses in their local areas in order to achieve specific health objectives.

To help you keep abreast of developments we have created a small addition to the e-Newsletter which will sign post you to new content on our website.  This can be found at the end of this quarter’s e-News.

To discuss any of the above, or to share your ideas on how we could further improve the eNewsletter or website, please contact us:
Email Taking Action

Vicki Golding
On behalf of the Communications Team
Education for Health

Taking action, educating people and transforming lives worldwide

Summary

Taking Action

  • Accredited Training: Making a difference to patient care in your local area.  Guest Writer: Sandy Walmsley, Respiratory Nurse Specialist, Solihull Care Trust
  • How to make your case for education and training – Download unique toolkits
  • Commission education of health professionals in your area and improve the care of patients in both a hospital setting and in the community.  Guest Writer: Gill Elder, RGN, Newcastle East Cluster Group
  • Race for Life – to raise awareness of long term conditions and the need for research to support Cancer Research UK’s life saving work

Educating People

  • Working together to show a common need for continuing professional development could result in SHA funding.  Guest Writer: Amanda Crundall, Heart Failure Nurse Specialist, Doncaster PCT
  • New sponsorship for stroke and atrial fibrillation courses in East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber SHA areas
  • Unblock Your Potential – study shows young people with hayfever symptoms are 40% more likely to drop a grade between their mock and final exams

Transforming Lives Worldwide

  • WebWatch: Poodwaddle world clock offers a shocking insight into global incidence of long term conditions
  • Progress Report:  Asthma & Allergic Rhinitis Status Measure evaluation
  • Dr Jonathan Shapiro takes up the role of new Chairman at Education for Health
  • Signpost to Web News

Taking Action

Accredited Training: Making a difference to patient care in your local area.
Guest Writer: Sandy Walmsley, Respiratory Nurse Specialist, Solihull Care Trust

Sandy is delighted to have gained funding for and to be facilitating two cohorts of COPD diploma students.  She presented and won her case for this PCT wide initiative to give accredited training up to Level 2, in COPD to at least 1 clinician from every surgery and 1 community nurse from each clinic…

Learn more about Sandy’s story: http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/_documents/sandy_walmsley1.pdf

How to make your case for education and training – Download unique Toolkits

Education for Health can demonstrate that good quality education makes a measurable difference to the quality of life and health outcomes of patients.  In the light of the latest Darzi report this is important news and should enable us all to focus our thoughts on how to ensure that the annual NHS £4 billion education budget actually achieves what it was commissioned to do.  Closing the gap between present service and desired quality will be immeasurably more difficult without upskilling the existing workforce.  The Education for Health toolkits offer a practical, pragmatic and immediate way forward and has been enthusiastically embraced by more than 2000 nurses throughout the UK...

For more information and to download the FREE Toolkits:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/businesscase.asp

Commission education of health professionals in your area and improve the care of patients in both a hospital setting and in the community.  Guest Writer: Gill Elder, RGN, Newcastle East Cluster Group

In the UK more than 900,000 people have a diagnosis of COPD, but this figure is actually thought to be much higher with as few as 1 in 4 patients actually having had their condition recognised.  As an RGN working with Newcastle East Cluster Group in a seconded role, Gill Elder knew this and recognised the need for nurses to have access to education around COPD.  Gill realises that early identification of COPD can avoid debilitating, life shortening and expensive consequences…

Learn more about Gill’s story:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/_documents/gillelder1.pdf

Find out about locally delivered training in your area:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/commissioners.asp

Race for Life – to raise awareness of long term conditions and the need for research to support Cancer Research UK’s life saving work

We took part in Race for Life to raise awareness of long term conditions and the need for research.  18 million people in the UK have a long term condition which limits their day to day activities.  With a team of over 4,250 scientists, doctors and nurses, Cancer Research UK aim to beat cancer through word-class research.  They also fund research which aims to improve cancer patients’ quality of life…

Find out more at: http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/_documents/raceforlife1.pdf

Educating People

Working together to show a common need for continuing professional development could result in SHA funding.  Guest Writer: Amanda Crundall, Heart Failure Nurse Specialist, Doncaster PCT

As a Heart Failure Nurse Specialist for Doncaster PCT, Amanda Crundall wants to raise understanding in the community about the prevalence of heart failure.  In order to achieve this she regularly teaches sessions on the management of heart failure and palliative care and also runs taster sessions on heart failure for community staff.  Amanda makes nurses see that that they can improve patients’ quality of life, prevent disease progression and improve life expectancy…

Find out more at:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/_documents/amanda_crundall1.pdf

New sponsorship for stroke and atrial fibrillation courses in East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber SHA areas

Expanded education commissioning arrangements with East Mids and Yorks & Humber Strategic Health Authorities means that nursing and allied health professionals can now freely access a whole range of short courses, modules and programmes at diploma, degree and Masters levels.  You can even arrange for fee-free team training in your own area for groups of 10 or more.

Nurses in primary and secondary care who work in the East Midlands can now claim 100% sponsorship to undertake stroke and atrial fibrillation diploma level modules with Education for Health…

Obtain further details on free access to a range of courses:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/about_us/press_releases_news.asp#access1

Unblock Your Potential – study shows young people with hayfever symptoms are 40% more likely to drop a grade between their mock and final exams

An awareness-raising campaign entitled 'Unblock your potential' has been launched this summer by Schering Plough and is being endorsed by Education for Health.  The campaign is based on our study published last summer which showed that young people with hayfever symptoms on an exam day were 40% more likely to drop a grade between their mock and final exams - a figure which jumped to 70% if they were taking sedating antihistamines (which accounted for nearly a third of those taking hayfever medication)…

More information on the campaign is available from: http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/hayfever.asp

To keep up to date with our research projects subscribe to our Research Network newsletter: Email Research Network

Transforming Lives Worldwide

WebWatch: Poodwaddle world clock offers a shocking insight into global incidence of long term conditions

Poodwaddle World Clock of global health statistics manages to be morbidly fascinating and inspiring at the same time.  The clock tabulates statistics on cause of death, illness and injury incidence in real time, allowing you to observe the numbers of deaths from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and diabetes, as well as incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, TB and asthma...

Keep up to date with the WebWatch series:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/_documents/webwatch2.pdf

Progress Report: Asthma & Allergic Rhinitis Status Measure evaluation

We would like to thank everyone who evaluated this measure.  The feedback has been informative and we look forward to reporting our findings in the September issue of the British Journal Primary Care Nursing.  Some of the 368 people who downloaded this measure encountered problems doing so.  We now provide an email address at the end of the download process for people to contact if they need assistance…

Use this free measure to detect allergy in patients that have asthma:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/template.asp

Dr Jonathan Shapiro takes up the role of new Chairman at Education for Health

Across the globe, the number of people with one or more chronic illnesses is rapidly increasing.  The appointment of Dr Jonathan Shapiro as our new Chairman highlights our belief in the importance of long term illness to the future of world health and builds on our growing portfolio of disease education and the number of countries with which it works.  Dr Shapiro commented: “The 21st Century is fast becoming the century of long term conditions, and the more we can contribute to improving the lives of people with such illnesses, the more successful I will feel the charity to be.”  Those wishing to explore areas of mutual interest for collaboration are encouraged to contact Dr Shapiro or Chief Executive, Monica Fletcher directly…

Find out more at:
http://www.educationforhealth.org.uk/pages/about_us/press_releases_news.asp#chairman

Sign Post to Web News

To help you keep abreast of developments we have created a small addition to the e-Newsletter which will sign post you to new content on our website, just follow the links:

Feedback

Email us at:   Taking Action

For further information visit the Join e-Newsletter Group area on our website.