RCGP launches e-learning course on
self care
10/11/11
The benefits of
encouraging patients to self care are explored in an e-learning
course launched by the Royal College of General Practitioners
(RCGP).
The course aims to help
change the culture of dependency in the NHS by equipping health
professionals with the skills needed to encourage and empower
patients to self care. It is specifically focused on minor
ailments.
Developed by the RCGP in partnership with the Proprietary Association of Great Britain
(PAGB) and funded by NHS
North West, the new
e-learning course is freely available to all RCGP members, GPs and
other primary care practitioners who register on the RCGP Online
Learning Environment.
Drs Clare Etherington1and Fiona Baskett2 were
the lead-authors involved in writing the course, working in
partnership with patient representatives.
Professor Nigel Sparrow,
Chair of the RCGP Professional Development Board and co-chair of
the steering group that informed the self-care e-learning, said:
"As health professionals I believe it is our duty to provide
education and support to our patients and the wider community to
‘self-care’. The RCGP’s new online course is aimed at facilitating
this. It is important for both patients and GPs to improve shared
decision making to increase patient confidence and develop more
effective use of primary care".
Susan Summers, Assistant
Director of Quality Assurance and Self-care at NHS North West
Strategic Health Authority, said: "If we are to halt the rise and
prevalence of long term conditions, focus on prevention and
upstream activity, including minor ailments, is critical –
self-care is absolutely the catalyst for this, and this is why NHS
North West felt it so important to fund the RCGPs’ new online
module. We are proud to have been involved and are sure the course
will further the reach of self-care."
Anthony Chuter, lay-chair of
the RCGPs’ Patient Partnership Group said: "As someone who has
learnt to self manage a long term condition with the help of my GP
and consultants, I know just how much difference this could also
make to others managing short term periods of illness. I am glad
that health professionals are getting further support in
encouraging patients like me to self-care."
Gopa Mitra, co-chair of the
online course steering group and director of
policy and public affairs at PAGB said: "We are doing this because
our research over the last two decades shows that GPs, nurses and
other health professionals have an enormous role to play in
empowering patients to have the confidence to know when self-care
is appropriate and when they need to seek medical help. I am
delighted that the RCGP has enabled our common vision to become a
reality and NHS North West has played such a valuable role in
funding it."
The RCGP also recently
launched a tool to help GPs and their teams to enhance the care of
patients with long term conditions such as diabetes.
Care Planning – Improving
the Lives of People with Long Term Conditions focuses on
people with long term physical health problems and provides
guidance to help GPs and their teams better support such patients
in gaining more control over their health and improving the quality
of their lives.
The Self Care for Minor
Ailments e-learning is available at http://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=80
ENDS
FURTHER
INFORMATION
RCGP Press office – 020 3188
7574/7575/7576
Out of hours: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk
NOTES TO
EDITORS
- Dr Clare Everington is a GP in Harrow. She is a GP
trainer; GP tutor and a MRCGP; CSA; and iMAP examiner. She is the
News and Views editor for Innovait. Her particular interests are
Womens Health, Paediatrics and Prescribing.
- Dr Fiona Baskett is a GP, clinical lecturer and medical
writer. In 2009 she passed iMAP MRCGP. She is currently a sessional
GP and Appraiser within the Severn Deanery.