Jacqueline Jepson

Abstract

Our aim was to identify the perceived educational needs of nurses working in acute medicine to enable development of a training curriculum specifically for this staff group.

Methods: Post-graduate nurses from North Wales were invited to list 20 conditions and 10 skills for which they felt under prepared for their work in acute medicine. A workshop was then organized, attended by acute medicine nurses,medical colleagues and educationalists from two local universities to discuss initial data.

Results: Nurses identified particular needs for education around presenting symptoms with perceived deficits in knowledge or training. We found a heavy emphasis on respiratory and cardiac conditions. There was considerable overlap with frequent diagnostic categories from non-surgical hospital discharges and with priorities for training of junior doctors. Skills were often those traditionally associated with medical staff or care of patients with critical illnesses.

Conclusion: The 20:10 project represents the first attempt to map educational needs of nursing staff on the Acute Medical Units of a large University Health Board using self-reported needs. The identified needs will support professional development, create incentives for recruitment and guide University postgraduate developments and commissioning.