BGS elearning empowers healthcare professionals

Dr Katharine Bhatt is a GP and Enhanced Health in Care Homes and Frailty Clinical Facilitator in Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. Dr William McKeown is an ST6 specialist registrar in the care of the elderly medicine based at Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. Cherise Gyimah, a Pharmacist, is the Delivery and Policy Lead at Community Transformation (Workforce), NHS England.

The British Geriatrics Society has updated and relaunched its Frailty elearning course, which is now free to all health and social care professionals, thanks to funding from NHS England. The content of this elearning module is to empower healthcare professionals to provide the best possible care to older people living with frailty.

Frailty is a condition that is best managed by skilled multi-disciplinary teams working through approaches such as comprehensive geriatric assessment. It is essential that all healthcare professionals working with older people living with frailty are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and attitudes to look after persons affected by frailty. This new elearning module is designed to support health, social care, and other professionals with a high degree of autonomy and enable them to provide care in complex situations. This includes those who may also lead services for people living with frailty. It has been devised to cover tier three competencies as outlined in the NHS Skills for Health Frailty Framework of Core Capabilities.

The new elearning module is split into four learning modules which include:

• Module 1 – Understanding and Communicating Frailty
• Module 2 – Identifying Frailty
• Module 3 – Supporting People Living with Frailty
• Module 4 – Building Systems Fit for Frailty – Delivering National Policy at a Local Level

This interactive elearning module is targeted to the full range of Tier 3 medical, nursing and allied health professional roles working across all clinical settings. Learners will be able to access content tailored to their place of work whether in acute care, intermediate care or community-based locations. Knowledge is delivered via the use of case studies which aim to reflect the challenging reality of supporting older people living with frailty. Upon completion of the learning modules, learners will be asked to complete a multiple-choice assessment and will receive a learning certificate as evidence of their learning. It is hoped ultimately that this learning will lead to real and meaningful improvements in the lives of those living with frailty in the UK.

About the authors

• Dr William McKeown is an ST6 specialist registrar in care of the elderly medicine. He is based at Antrim Area Hospital in Northern Ireland. He leads Foundation Programme frailty teaching within the Northern Ireland medical deanery. He also sits on the NI Frailty Network education committee. He is a previous recipient of the BIASP Warlow Prize.
• Dr Katharine Bhatt is a General Practitioner who was the Clinical Lead for a collaborative Care Home Visiting Service for the last 5 years, providing acute care, Enhanced Health in Care Homes (EHCH) and Intermediate Care to 90 care homes in Torbay. She has a separate strategic role in Torbay's Integrated Care System, supporting the system-wide delivery of the EHCH framework and contributing to South Devon’s Frailty and Healthy Ageing Partnership, including delivering frailty education. She is also a GP Appraiser.
• Cherise Gyimah is Pharmacist Delivery and Policy Lead, Community Transformation (Workforce) at NHS England.