To ensure all colleagues involved in the safe management of medicines receive appropriate training and education, five new eLearning Medicines Management eLearning modules will go live tomorrow, Tuesday 1st July 2025. This replaces the existing training, and is bespoke to CHFT.
Colleagues who are compliant with the current medicines management training will have their compliance carried forward in ESR.
Why are we updating the modules?
The existing regional eLearning package had not been updated and some aspects were factually incorrect. It was also not reflective of risks and concerns with identified incidents in the Trust. It often took colleagues long periods of time to complete, often due to multiple system errors/failures and was only assigned to the ESR records of Registered Nurses/Midwives and Nursing Associates.
The modules have been developed and rigorously tested over the last two years.
What are the modules?
The modules link with local medicines safety concerns and incidents as well as national ones. They also support national drives to improve medicines management safety e.g., storage, prescribing and preparation/administration of opioids and Parkinson’s Disease. The modules link with the Nursing Midwifery Ambition of Lifelong Learning.
The five modules are:
- Preparation and administration
- Storage and security of medicines
- Controlled Drugs
- Critical medicines
- Medicines management at discharge
Modules are interactive and use videos, case studies, along with further reading and knowledge checks.
What is the frequency of the training and who will need to complete the modules?
The frequency of completion will change from every two years to every three years (in line with other Trust training packages), releasing more time for colleagues.
All RNs/RMs/NAs/Pharmacy colleagues will have all or some modules assigned to their ESR. This is a new assignment for Pharmacy colleagues and the number of modules assigned is directly linked to job role. If colleagues are compliant with current medicines management training their compliance will be carried forward.
The modules can also be accessed by all colleagues for CPD or where additional learning is required, after for example a medication incident/prescribing incident involving critical medicines or post audits.
What if I am already compliant on ESR?
Colleagues who are compliant with the current medicines management training, will have their compliance carried forward.
Clinical Director of Pharmacy, Elisabeth Street, said: “The new CHFT bespoke medicines management modules have been produced using the expertise of our CHFT Medication Safety Team. They ensure the eLearning content is current, relevant and reflective of some of the issues that have been reported at the Trust. The eLearning also includes recent National Patient Safety Alerts and updates. Thank you to the Medication Safety Team and Andrew Nichols, Digital eLearning Developer Lead for all their hard work in producing the modules.”
On behalf of the Medication Safety Team, Lead Nurse for Medicines Management, Karen Austin said: “It’s been quite a two-year journey! We’ve never embarked on developing eLearning before, and it’s been challenging at times.
“It’s also been extremely rewarding watching each module evolve into the interactive eLearning we have today. Thank you to Andrew Nichols (Digital eLearning Developer Lead) who has been patient, supportive and encouraging every step of the way, and to our system testers from many professional backgrounds have made time to test, retest and give their valuable feedback. We would also like to thank Mark Bushby (Head of Workforce and Development) and Debbie Rees (Workforce BI Officer) for all their work behind the scenes preparing ESR for the launch on 1st July.”