Free Swindon training day helped care professionals boost skills

Swindon and Wiltshire Innovative Technology Care Hub (SWITCH) held a free training day for local care professionals at its cutting-edge healthcare education facility.

The event was organised in ewass  in partnership with Curam, the UK’s largest digital employment platform for the care sector, to upskill and improve care provision in the region. 

Care professionals who work through Curam from Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire attended SWITCH’s three-hour Wound Care training session, achieving a college-level certification at the end of the day. 

During the course, care professionals learned about skin integrity and how to spot changes, such as pressure wounds, as well as the initial response required to prevent infection, whether that is basic treatment or referral. 

Using realistic task trainers in SWITCH’s interactive learning suite, participants were given an accurate and bespoke sense of what wounds may look like on their clients and how they should react. The session highlighted how skin wounds manifest on different skin types to instil cultural competency. 

The immersive suite at SWITCH simulates healthcare environments through projections, smells and a family of life-like manikins which can talk, cough, cry and realistically react to care interventions. 

This helps care professionals develop healthcare skills and softer skills such as patient interaction in a simulation setting. The hub was funded under the Skills Development Fund from the Department for Education. SWITCH provides mandatory and clinical skills training to upskill care professionals across the region.  

The session also acted as a networking opportunity, allowing professionals who work for Curam on a self-employed basis to come together as a team and share experiences and best practices. 

The initiative reflects Curam and SWITCH’s shared ethos of improving care provisions in the UK by ensuring everyone has access to high-quality care through upskilling and training and using technology to facilitate this. 

SWITCH aims to enhance and upskill health and social care workers in the area with cutting-edge, technology-driven facilities and equipment in simulation hospital wards. 

Augmented reality, virtual reality and manikins that have humanistic features and can react to the care given give Care Professionals hands-on experience and the opportunity to practice high-risk scenarios in low-pressure environments. 

Ashley-Louise Lumley, a Swindon-based Curam Champion and organiser of the training day, said: “SWITCH’s training facilities are top class, and it has been fantastic to help deliver this to the wider community of care professionals who operate through Curam. 

"There is a broad range of experience among care professionals who operate through the platform – some have been in the industry for just over two years, while others have been providing care for more than 15 years. 

"Everyone, no matter their previous experience, benefits from bespoke in-person learning sessions like these, focusing on skills that are key to promoting individual health and well-being in the community. Skin integrity is particularly important and something all care professionals should be aware of.

“We look forward to continuing a relationship with SWITCH which will give Curam clients in the South West peace of mind that their care professional is learning from an established and innovative educator to provide the highest quality of care possible.” 

David Panes, Programme Lead at SWITCH, said: “It’s a pleasure to offer this opportunity to care professionals operating through Curam in the South West and support them as they develop their skills. 

"We truly believe that clinical competency combined with solid educational elements is essential to providing good quality care. 

"By ensuring that those providing it have the skills they need, we create a stronger community of skilled caregivers, which ultimately benefits the wider local area and its residents.”