Loughborough University’s Patient Safety Course for Hundreds of NHS Professionals

Loughborough University is collaborating with NHS England to provide training to hundreds of healthcare professionals in order to improve patient safety.

After winning a competitive procurement procedure, human factors and ergonomics experts from the School of Design and Creative Arts will offer Levels 3 and 4 of the NHS Patient Safety Syllabus and Curriculum.

The Loughborough University team, led by Dr Mike Fray and backed by Professor Sue Hignett and Professor Thomas Jun, will create and deliver instructional content to 820 patient safety professionals across various NHS Trusts in England from 2023 to 2024.

The NHS estimates that improving patient safety will save over 1,000 additional lives and £100 million in care expenses per year beginning in 2023/24.

The NHS Patient Safety Syllabus was developed in 2021 by drawing on best practices from a variety of safety-critical businesses. Its primary goal is to change how personnel think about enhancing patient safety. The key to this is shifting the emphasis away from the existing mostly retrospective studies and toward proactive prevention of safety problems.

Dr. Fray feels that Loughborough University’s world-class reputation in the delivery of human factors and ergonomics courses will assist the NHS in meeting its objectives.

The Loughborough-created program will cover a wide range of topics from Levels 3 and 4 of the syllabus, including deconstructing system difficulties, managing patient safety concerns, comprehending cultural, legal, and regulatory factors, and devising solutions.

Dr Fray said: “No healthcare worker goes to work thinking they will do harm, but the systems, processes, and complexity of the work can lead to errors, omissions, or reductions in quality of care.  “With this new course, we will be able to support patient safety specialists in each Trust to lead safety improvement work and provide safety science expertise to their organizations so that patients across the NHS can benefit.”

Training and education is at the center of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy so that we can empower people with the latest skills and knowledge in patient safety science.

The launch of this training for our patient safety specialists is the latest development in this work, using the syllabus created with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and adding to the training already available to all staff in the NHS.”

Aidan Fowler, National Director of Patient Safety

Source: Loughborough University