Transforming staff training at an acute trust in response to COVID-19
Intended for healthcare professionals
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Transforming staff training at an acute trust in response to COVID-19

Amy Louise Clark-Maxwell Service and practice development facilitator, learning and organisational development, Northwick Park Hospital, London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, London

Why you should read this article:
  • To understand why healthcare staff training had to be overhauled during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic

  • To familiarise yourself with the changes required when moving from face-to-face to virtual training

  • To appreciate how the role of clinical nurse educators had to evolve during the pandemic

In nursing, there has traditionally been significant emphasis on face-to-face staff training, but in 2020 methods of delivering staff training had to be overhauled in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Rapid and extensive changes to staff training were made across care settings to ensure that service needs were met and that everyone’s safety was maintained. At one large acute trust in London, the clinical nurse education team used Lewin’s change model to make adaptations to staff training and embed these changes in practice. The team transferred most of the training onto a virtual learning platform and used this as an opportunity to review and enhance the accessibility and inclusiveness of training. This article describes how staff training was transformed and how the role of clinical nurse educator evolved at the trust during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author also demonstrates how Lewin’s model of change can be applied to make changes and embed them in practice.

Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2022.e11772

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

amy.clark-maxwell@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Clark-Maxwell AL (2022) Transforming staff training at an acute trust in response to COVID-19. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2022.e11772

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Sharin Baldwin for providing constructive feedback on this article. The author would also like to acknowledge the learning and organisational development team and the wider multidisciplinary team at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, who have worked collaboratively to make fast-paced changes happen during the pandemic.

Published online: 30 May 2022

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