Validate Your Care (V-Care) - Library and E-Learning Service
The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Validate Your Care (V-Care) is a powerful knowledge assurance tool for those working in adult acute care, facilitating a flexible approach to learning and development. It aims to provide an evidence-based, one stop, user friendly on-line learning portal to support busy nurses; to assess, develop and assure themselves of their knowledge across core areas of fundamental nursing care. It has provided an opportunity to assure the public and other stakeholders that its nursing workforce is up-to-date, and practising caring and compassionate evidence based care. It is accessible at any time in or out of the trust, on any device. Completion of the programme takes between 2–10 hours and it is structured around three modules:

• Recognition and management of the deteriorating adult
• Care of older people in health care settings
• Evidence based acute medical and surgical nursing care

The V-Care team developed core resources in conjunction with a leading professor of nursing, who worked closely with subject matter experts, working in the trust to develop subject specific content that was up to date, and relevant to current training practices within the trust. Verification was sought by scoping local and national policy directives and through a survey of senior nurses across Greater Manchester. The resulting programme engenders the 6 C’s, reduces duplication of the requirements of some mandatory training, uses the best available evidence and supports nurses to prepare for the professional revalidation requirements from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The team now hope to roll V-Care out to other clinical areas and other NHS organisations.

Nominated by John Bramwell