In 2014, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust enlisted the help of Karen and the team at 18WeekeLearning to establish a package for staff both clinical and non-clinical in order to enhance staff knowledge of the 18 weeks RTT pathways and to support improvements in recording RTT pathways appropriately within the Trust.

Following completion of the training modules and as a direct result of commissioning the eLearning package, the exams have now become mandatory for all users who are exposed to RTT within the organisation. This also ensured both standardisation of practice and reliability.

With so many staff changes and with the change in RTT guidance since October 2015, the Trust renewed for a second year.

Once again, Karen and her team helped us through the registration process ensuring that all staff who registered last year were ready to go and for all our newcomers that they had accounts too.

The site has been refreshed, including reflecting changes in the new guidance and now supports comprehensive dashboards and reports which will make a difference when ascertaining competent staff within the organisation.

It has felt this year that the experience has been far less painful for staff and our success rate of staff passing the exams is double that of what it was last year. Staff have not felt it as daunting and we are easily able to pick out our RTT champions looking at the results.

The Trust has welcomed this training as we did struggle to find a definitive place for staff to understand the full impact of RTT and Karen and her team have provided an excellent structured and knowledgeable tool to for us to achieve this.

Thank you Karen!

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust purchased the 18 week e-Learning resource in 2014 to enhance staff knowledge of the 18 weeks RTT pathways and support improvements in RTT recordings within the Trust.

Approximately 800 clinical /non-clinical staff who administer patient pathways in relation to 18 week RTT waiting times were identified as requiring training. These staff were asked to complete an initial baseline assessment for the Trust to gain a level of their 18 week RTT pathway knowledge prior to commencement of the training. A small number of staff were hesitant about undertaking the training, however, are now able to see the benefit in terms of their understanding of RTT and translation to their role, impact on patients and the Trust’s compliance with the target.

In addition staff were also invited to attend a 2-hour face to face session. Nine sessions, led by Karen Hyde, Director of 18 weeks e-Learning, were scheduled over 3-week period giving staff an opportunity to ask specific questions relating to their area of work. These sessions were well attended and feedback was extremely positive including comments like “Karen really knows her stuff”.

Following completion of the training modules staff were asked to re-sit the online exam to re-test their knowledge following completion of the training. To date 583 have passed following completion of the training.

The Trust also decided to undertake some bespoke speciality training and 3x1-day were held facilitated by Senior Managers but led by Nicola Cooper from 18 weeks e-Learning, the aim of which was to focus on implementation of the 18 week RTT pathways within key directorates.

As a result of commissioning the eLearning package, the Trust has developed staff core competencies and is in the process of developing an assurance system. This will ensure both standardisation of practice and reliability.

18 week eLearning Directors have been extremely supportive in assisting the Trust to organise the logistics of training, leading face to face sessions and providing advice in relation to specific speciality queries. I personally have found them very knowledgeable and they were very well received by staff groups.