Australian Nurse Teachers Society

Katie Kerr has asked that I provide more information on the project.  Thanks to all who have responded.  By participating in these projects, ANTS becomes more visible. 

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your interest in the development of a national medication safety
e-learning tool. I have been overwhelmed with responses from ANTS members since
your president Sandra Campbell-Crofts kindly sent out the Expression of Interest
for nurses to assist with the program. Your enthusiasm not only indicates the
passion of your group for medication safety, but also the need for a comprehensive
training program in this area.

A number of members have asked for more information on the program and the review
process, which I hope to provide in this email. However, if you have further
questions please do not hesitate to contact me individually.

The content of the e-learning tool is being developed by NSW Therapeutic Advisory
Group. The website will be designed and hosted by NPS: Better Choices, Better
Health www.nps.org.au  (click on "online learning" to view some of their other
current training programs).

The Medication Safety Online Learning Program will be aimed at junior (newly
registered) hospital-based practitioners (doctors, nurses and pharmacy staff). The
program will explore the interdependency of the professions and how we can work
together to reduce errors. It will have a very practical focus, using real-life
examples of errors that have occurred, and will examine the medication safety
issues that can be addressed at an individual level rather than tackling complex
system issues. It will be as interactive as possible to engage learners with
questions and activities throughout.

From a nursing perspective the target audience will be recently-qualified RNs and
midwives, as well as ENs who administer medications. It may also be useful to
update the knowledge of more experienced staff or those returning to the
workforce. There has also been interest from universities and we envisage that the
program could be used in the latter years of training, once students have gained a
good awareness of the clinical environment.

The program will be set up as individual modules; practitioners will be able to
work through the complete course (recommended for junior practitioners) or choose
one or more individual modules to meet an identified learning need.  Modules
currently under development include: types and causes of medication errors; wrong
drug errors; wrong route errors; intravenous errors; dosage formulation errors;
communicating for safety. There will also be a number of case studies which will
highlight key learning points from the modules.

Users will need to set up an individual log-in to be able to track their progress
through the program. This will enable the user to save their activity, record the
modules that have been completed and print records for their portfolios.
Education administrators e.g. Nurse Educators may also request to have access to
view the numbers of staff in their institution/work area that have undertaken the
training.

We currently have a number of modules in draft format and will be developing more
material over the coming months. I will be contacting ANTS members individually
to review the content of the draft modules. Your participation would involve
approximately 2 hours work per module reviewed, within a 2 week deadline. Most
reviewers will only be asked to look at one module, at some point during the next
few months. Due to the large response to the EOI, unfortunately I will  not be
able to assign reviews to everyone who has responded. Therefore, please let me
know if you would prefer to opt out.

We anticipate that some modules and case studies will be available on the NPS
website by April 2012. I will be sure to inform ANTS when the website is up and
running so that you are able to access and hopefully start using the program in
your workplaces.

Once again, thanks for the many emails and your enthusiasm for this project.

Kind regards, Katie

Katie Kerr
Medication Safety Project Officer
NSW Therapeutic Advisory Group
PO Box 766
Darlinghurst
NSW 2010
02 83823743
 
(Working days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays)