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A special training day took place at the Eden Project recently, providing educational opportunities for clinicians managing the urgent health care needs of outpatients.

The day was hailed as a huge success by those who attended from various units across Cornwall.

The event was hosted by NB Medical, which provides continuing professional development training for GPs and healthcare professionals. The day covered a wide range of key areas in urgent care. It was seen as a positive step towards providing training opportunities for GPs and doctors in acute coronary syndrome. As well as minor injury teams, advanced nurse practitioners and physician associates.

“It was great to see so many medical and allied medical colleagues being offered such a fantastic training day. We need to continue to value and develop colleagues in these roles in our minor injury units, urgent treatment centre, community hospitals and MSK (physiotherapy).” Adrian Flynn, Chief Medical Officer

The day brought a number of people together from across various urgent care facilities in Camborne and Redruth. The event also included mental health and physical health. Colleagues from Bodmin, as well as practitioners from other parts of the county, were also in attendance.

Dr Janine Glazier, Associate Medical Director for Adult Community Services, was delighted to see so many people from different areas converge on Eden to talk about their roles within the Trust. She

“It was a really lovely opportunity to bring all the different people involved in urgent care together. It was also a good opportunity to network and look at what other people’s roles were. We had colleagues from a variety of different services from the urgent treatment centre. Health for Homeless were also there and colleagues managing the physical health needs on the mental health wards. I think everybody felt that the area that they specialise in was covered. From chest pain to drug overdose via some helpful tips on finger and hand conditions. It went down really well and we’ll definitely look to do it again next year.” Dr Janine Glazier

Dr Jerry Quill was one of those who attended. He felt there were many positives to take away from the day.

“It was very well set up at a beautiful location. More importantly I felt that the topics that were covered were very relevant to my practice. I thought that the delivery of it, bearing in mind there’s a lot to cover, they did a pretty good job. I felt coming away that I had upgraded my knowledge and skill set on the back of it. I’ve also referred to the very helpful book that we were all given which contains most, if not all that is relevant to me as a minor injuries GP essentially.

"Every day is a school day and you never stop learning on this job. The guidelines are being upgraded all the time and being revised. So sometimes it is difficult to keep track of all of them. That’s why these kinds of forums are so helpful in that sense. The discussions that were had were quite helpful too. People have slightly different backgrounds. Being able to see things from different perspectives is actually quite helpful as well. If this was on again, I would definitely go.”

Dr Ruth Barnes, who is deputy services lead at Camborne Redruth Community Hospital, felt the day provided the perfect opportunity to not only refresh her own skill set but also learn about other areas in urgent care.

“It was very much focussed on urgent care. NB Medical went through lots of good, relevant cases which were really helpful and really applicable to our nurses and doctors. It was also really nice to have some downtime with colleagues as well because we work in quite a pressurised environment. Being able to chat with others was really helpful and a good opportunity to meet people you only usually chat to on the phone. There were some topics I already knew about, which are my bread and butter. But there were other fascinating bits to learn about too. There’s always something to be learnt and even when you know something it’s nice to have a bit of a recap.”

Jenny Fayrs, Camborne Redruth Community Hospital Minor Injury Unit Team Lead also attended the training day at Eden. Jenny said she would encourage more people to attend the next training event.

“It was really relevant to everything we see in our units every day. It was good to have people in the room from units like this, from minor injury units, and advanced practitioners from GP surgeries. Without being solely focused on one area, it was really useful across all areas. It was really beneficial. If they were to hold another day like this again, I would definitely encourage more practitioners to go.”