The Stroke Education Pathway was developed by the Stroke Managed Clinical Network (MCN) to ensure all individuals caring regularly for people affected by stroke have the suitable knowledge, skills, attitudes and confidence to fulfil their role and enhance the quality of service for people affected by stroke.
The pathway comprises of a programme of training and practice development activities facilitated by the Stroke Practice Development Facilitator (PDF). The Stroke PDF is a unique post developed in NHS Lanarkshire collaboratively with Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland and NHS Education Scotland.
A range of training opportunities are offered at awareness, core competency and advanced levels. A range of training opportunities are offered at awareness, core competency and advanced levels:
- Stroke awareness sessions are short sessions of theory and practical for staff in contact with people affected by stroke, but deal with a mixed patient group. A wider range of staff from different acute and community areas have participated in these sessions.
- Stroke core competency course offers shared multidisciplinary learning over two and a half days to staff in regular contact with people affected by stroke. The national stroke standard states that all staff working within stroke unit must complete stroke core competency training if they have worked within the unit for three months or more. The pre and post course evaluations monitor changes to participant’s knowledge, skill and confidence.
- Advanced study days focus on specific aspects of stroke care in more detail providing opportunities for staff who wish to advance their knowledge further. Degree and Masters level modules are also available to staff with free places available through the agreements with University of the West of Scotland and the University of Glasgow.
Practice development activities are supported by the Stroke PDF. Participants can consolidate training accessing the free e-learning resources available on the STARs website. Practice development activities are identified, actioned and evidenced using the Stroke Competency Toolkit (SCoT).