The University of Salford School of Health and Society are working alongside the Greater Manchester (GM) Cardiac Network to develop a new module for healthcare professionals to optionally study.

The foundation module is expected to be available in 2020, exclusively at the University of Salford, and is a collaborative project from the university, the GM Cardiac Network, the big heart centres – Manchester Heart Centre and North West Heart Centre in Wythenshawe, and 13 other hospitals within the Network.

 

Dr. Karen Higginbotham, lecturer in adult nursing, said: “The foundation module will provide an overview for students who are coming. These are qualified professionals – nurses and doctors – not students as in the undergraduate sense. They’re already qualified, so they’ll already have knowledge of cardiovascular illnesses and diseases because they are working within that field.

“The module will give them the underpinning knowledge and further modules will give them the depth and breadth they need within their chosen specialism.”

Currently, in the North West, there is no formulated cardiac education programme that healthcare professionals can access, despite having two of the most well-known heart centres across the UK.

Dr. Higginbotham added: “This got me thinking… how would the university collaborate with a network in developing this programme? It happened that the Greater Manchester Cardiac network were already looking at clinical competency frameworks anyway, so we came together to collaborate on what we hope will be the Greater Manchester Cardiac Educational Programme.”

A simulation room in the University of Salford.

In May this year, a Cardiac Listening Event was held at the university by Dr. Higginbotham, who invited a host of people across the network in cardiovascular services. The aim of this was to explore what exactly healthcare professionals are wanting from a cardiac educational programme.

“Like anything in medicine and nursing,” Dr. Higginbotham stated, “things change very quickly, and we have to be able to prepare our healthcare professionals to be able to manage those changes and deliver very good quality care.

“It’s about delivering primary and secondary care. Primary is out in the community, and secondary is in the hospitals. It’s to make sure the practitioners feel confident with their knowledge and it’s, also, I think, the end goal is that we make sure we deliver the best possible care to our patients because that’s what they deserve.”

To aid the development of the GM Cardiac Educational Programme, the university have simulation rooms that replicate a real hospital, where students and professionals alike can practice patient care.

Bernard Seddon, specialist simulation technician, explained: “This is what it looks like at Salford Royal. The same architects, painters, everything. Our students go to Salford Royal as well, so we wanted it to be something similar, so when they come in here, they’re in uniform and they’re into it, they’re into simulation straight away.”

The GM Cardiac Educational Programme is currently in the process of being approved by the university after much collaboration with many healthcare professionals.

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