introduction
The skills, competency and confidence of the health check provider are pivotal to delivery of a high-quality NHS Health Check.
Commissioners have been advised to consider workforce training as described in the NHS Health Check competence framework 2015.
- 66% of commissioners offer training for health check providers
- 45% believe the lack of staff time and capacity is the main barrier to offering training
the challenge
- Provider turnerover
- Low health literacy within junior staff
- Lack of clinical supervision and quality assurance
aim
To evaluate the online training package Health Check Mentor, launched in 2015 to address some of these challenges.
methodology
All users of Health Check Mentor were invited to complete an online feedback questionnaire on their experience of the e-learning.
conclusion
Health Check Mentor has been positively evaluated by users as being easy and relevant. Qualitative feedback has identified how the e-learning can counter some of the current challenges for providers. In addition to this, commissioners are provided with scheduled reports of user results in their region, to support the ongoing quality assurance of NHS Health Checks.
impact to providers
- It helps to share so we are all working to the same spec
- I learnt a lot of useful information to enable me to carry out a health assessment more effectively
- I now feel I can use this when seeing clients in the future
impact to commissioners
Health Check Mentor provides a central platform for all our trained health check practitioners. They can visit to refresh their knowledge and keep up to date with any changes to the programme. We encourage all our newly trained practitioners and those who may have had a break in service delivery to access the tool. It is informative, practical, interactive and easy to navigate. Being able to dip in and out has been appreciated by practitioners; allowing them to access information without viewing the whole programme.
Heather Frazer
Public Health Programme Manager
West Sussex County Council
Health Check Mentor offers a flexible and accessible training resource for all practitioners involved in providing Health Checks. It compliments the core training we offer a few times a year, provides introductory training for those new to Health Checks and a refresher for those who haven’t been on training for some time.
Hayley Martin
Health Improvement Principal
East Sussex County Council
