NARU has already played a significant role in helping to spread the message that the way the health service must now treat contaminated patients following a CBRN incident is changing (STEPS 123+).
A series of posters was produced and distributed by NARU across all ambulance Trusts as well as all NHS acute hospital Trusts, while the NARU Education Centre has been working with colleagues from across the NHS to develop bespoke IOR training materials suitable for use across the wider NHS.
However, that work has now been taken even further and in early April the NARU Education Centre held a special IOR Assurance Exercise to evaluate the current multiagency IOR training package, which consists of an awareness DVD and an e-Learning package. The idea was to check that these items were still fit-for-purpose among the variety of ambulance staff who would ultimately be using them.
NARU Head of Education Dave Bull QAM, said: “A group was formed of a random sample of ambulance staff from across English Ambulance Trusts who were asked to complete multiple choice questions, undertake scenario-based exercises, hear a talk about the current ambulance assets available for CBRN decontamination, and finally, were asked to watch the training DVD.
“It was an extremely useful and interesting day, which threw up some key pointers, and the outcomes and recommendations of this valuable event have now been shared with all Ambulance Trust EPRR leads.”
NARU also conducted a workshop held at the East Midlands Ambulance Service HART base for over 35 delegates from across the NHS. The aim was to introduce the background and history to IOR and provide them with information that will aid the implementation and roll out. Feedback from the event has been exceptionally positive and the opportunity to ask questions to the scientists and members of the Home Office team behind the Initial Operational Response was invaluable.
Says Dave: “Another event is being conducted in May and if required further events will be held to provide as much support to Trusts across the NHS when rolling out IOR. A key theme of the event was explaining the benefit of the IOR principles to the patient and that the process was all about improving the current response.
“The team have also been working with colleagues from across the NHS to develop bespoke IOR training materials suitable for use across the wider NHS. More information on these products, their objectives and how to obtain them will be shared in the next issue of NARU e-News.”
The Education Centre would like to thank Pennine Acute NHS Hospitals Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service for the use of their facilities in producing the training materials and conducting the workshop. Thanks also to Nicola Harrington and Sid Murphy for going the extra mile in coordinating the workshop and to Allan Cordwell and Peter Boorman for their input in to the training materials for the wider NHS.