• To recognise the importance of the appropriate use of medical devices in promoting patient safety
• To understand how training days can improve the competency of healthcare staff and prevent the occurrence of adverse events
• To consider how training days could increase the uptake of medical device training, staff experience and patient safety in your area of practice
Safe and effective patient care is dependent on the appropriate use of medical devices, so it is necessary to ensure that all nursing staff are competent in their use. This article describes how one urology ward in a large acute NHS trust has supported medical device training for its staff.
Aim To explore the potential benefits of introducing a ward time out training day to improve staff competency in the use of medical devices.
Method A training programme was introduced for the urology ward staff, which involved ward time out training days that covered medical device and mandatory training, alongside evidence to support nurses’ revalidation and a forum for peer support.
Findings Since the ward time out training days were introduced in 2015, medical device training competency among the urology ward staff has risen from 65% to 97% across all staff groups, including nurses and healthcare assistants.
Conclusion The ward time out training days were beneficial for the urology ward staff, and increased their medical device training competency. Additional benefits of the ward time out training days included team integration, improved knowledge and competency among staff, and nurses undertaking continuing professional development hours that contributed towards their revalidation.
Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11219
Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Correspondence Conflict of interestNone declared
Shields R, Latter K (2019) Improving the uptake of medical device training to promote patient safety. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11219
Published online: 18 November 2019
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