School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences

News

Health workers and patients across Northern Ireland are to benefit from a new initiative at Queen’s University which better prepares trainee doctors to safely move patients.

In addition to the risk to patients from incorrect handling, back injuries suffered by healthcare workers are estimated to cost the NHS around £400 million and account for 40 per cent of staff absences every year.

Now a third year Medical student at Queen’s, Matthew Anderson, under the direction of Dr Nigel Hart from Queen’s Centre for Medical Education, has developed an innovative, interactive e-learning package to train fellow students how to minimise the risk of injury when moving or handling patients.

Developed in collaboration with physiotherapists and nurses from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, the package uses text, image and video to demonstrate the correct techniques for moving and handling patients, as well as interactive questions to test the student. There are also personal accounts from people who have suffered lifting and handling injuries and the devastating impact this has had on their lives.

Dr Nigel Hart said: “This package delivers a complete message for all healthcare professionals to ensure a consistent approach to training. Previously training was delivered in a more piecemeal fashion through the various clinical attachments. Moving and handling has probably been under-prioritised in the medical curricula across the UK, evidenced by the specific inclusion of it as an item to be covered in the most recent version of the General Medical Council’s document Tomorrow’s Doctors.”

More than one third of NHS staff absences lasting over three days are caused by moving and handling injuries, resulting in significant costs to the health service through lost work days and, in some cases, early retirement due to ill health.

Director of Queen’s Centre for Medical Education in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Professor Pascal McKeown, said:  “Training is essential to reduce the risk to both patients and staff. While it may not be the most glamorous of clinical skills, patient moving and handling is an essential component of high quality healthcare. This multimedia training package is a valuable resource for our Medical students. We hope to share it with colleagues across the health professions and with other Medical schools in the UK.

“E-learning is an important aspect of the medical curriculum at Queen’s, complementing traditional approaches to teaching and enhancing the learning experience for students. While patient handling has been successfully taught through traditional lectures for many years, this online resource provides a more reliable, verifiable and easily managed way to deliver this training to large numbers of students.”

Matthew Anderson, who is originally from Randalstown but now lives in South Belfast, led the project during a summer studentship at the Centre for Medical Education. Earlier this week, Matthew presented the project to some of the leading figures in the education of healthcare professionals at the Irish Network of Medical Educators annual meeting in Dublin.

Matthew said: “The back is one of the most likely places for an injury to occur through poor manual handling, so it is important to know how the spine works, the injuries that can occur, and how posture and biomechanics can have an effect on your spine.

“The online training has already been well received among Queen’s medical students and I hope it will be a valuable resource to those across the healthcare professions who assist patients with movement on a daily basis.

“The project gave me a valuable insight into the benefits of e-learning as a medical education tool, and I hope to develop this project further through another summer studentship later this year.”

The Centre for Medical Education at Queen’s oversees the delivery of a world-class training system for future doctors. The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is now a Queen’s Hospital Campus and seven hospitals through Northern Ireland enjoy Queen’s Teaching Hospital status. For more information visit www.qub.ac.uk/schools/mdbs/medicine .

Top of Page