As featured on the BBC's "Look North" programme on December 18th 2008.
Follow this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7789998.stm to see the piece.
Overview
Carrying out and interpreting Electrocardiograph (ECG) traces, even if it just recognising the difference between a normal and abnormal trace, is increasingly becoming a core skill for many healthcare staff. ECG’s are more frequently being carried out in a community setting by ambulance paramedics or nurses or GP’s in surgery, and there is a need to provide consistent and comprehensive training to these staff, as well as to medical students and staff working in secondary care. Although a large number of taught courses exist, these have a high cost associated with them, such as venue hire and obtaining clinical cover, even before the actual cost of the training is taken into consideration. The quality of these ECG training courses can also be highly variable and may be unsuitable for some attendees.
Why not provide a consistent standard of ECG training that you and your team can use when you want to without affecting the service you deliver to patients?
The Solution
Inexpensive and suitable for all, whether a qualified healthcare professional or a medical student, or whether working in primary or secondary care, ecgskills.net is a radical new ECG training course which delivers comprehensive training in all aspects of carrying out an ECG and interpreting the traces produced. Developed by a multidisciplinary cardiology team from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in conjunction with Medcom Ltd, ecgskills.net contains detailed modules taking you step by step through each level of training by using a mix of 3D animation, audio narrative, images and detailed text. ecgskills.net also incorporates over 300 real-life ECG traces which can be viewed using the unique TraceZoomTM facility to make the training content as close as possible to what you will encounter in real-life.
As ecgskills.net is delivered over the internet (http://www.ecgskills.net), users can work through the comprehensive curriculum at their own pace and at a time convenient to them. Assessments built into the package reinforce learning and the system records how individual users are progressing through the course. Once the training course is completed, a certificate can be printed out as a permanent record. At an organisational level, the system can also be used as part of clinical negligence skills training, and used to prove training delivery which could reduce your medical indemnity insurance.
A demonstration of ecgskills.net can be viewed by clicking on the manufacturers link at the bottom of this page.
Levels of Training
ecgskills.net comprises 3 levels of training tailored to the needs of different groups:
Level 1 will suit those who have not performed an ECG before or would like to refresh their basic understanding of electrocardiography. This level may be useful for medical students and junior doctors, nurses, paramedics, and clinical physiologists. The content of level 1 starts by introducing basic cardiac physiology and its relation to how an ECG trace is composed. It then goes on to demonstrate how an ECG is taken, how to resolve any technical problems that you may come across and then how to recognise what a “normal” ECG trace should look like.
Level 2 will suit those who need to recognise and diagnose abnormal ECGs. This level may be useful for medical students, doctors, nurses (especially those with specialist posts in Accident & Emergency Departments, on Coronary or Intensive Care Units and in GP surgeries), paramedics, and physiological measurement technicians. The focus of this level is on recognising the most common forms of abnormal ECG traces produced by a diseased heart. Before accessing level 2, an assessment must be passed to show that the user has the basic understanding of ECG’s necessary to fully benefit from undertaking this module. This is an example of the rigorous assessment standards built into ecgskills.net.
Level 3 will suit those who use ECGs in their daily practice. This level may be useful to postgraduate doctors, postgraduate nurses, some paramedic advance practictioners, nurses in accident and emergency departments and coronary and intensive care units and cardiac physiologists. This level aims to show how the ECG can be used as a clinical tool and how to interpret the ECG within a clinical setting. Additionally, by understanding underlying patho-physiological processes you can work out how the clinical situation relates to ECG changes. This Level includes sections on ECG's during pregnancy, recording ECG's in children, exercise testing, 24 hour arrhythmia analysis and myocardial perfusion imaging.
Pricing & Availability
Prices for this comprehensive and essential ECG training package start from just £20 per user. To purchase an individual licence, arrange a quotation for a multi-user licence or just to find out more information, please click on the link to the manufacturers site at the bottom of this page or e-mail enquiries@ecgskills.net or telephone Medcom Ltd on [+44] (0)1904 567605.
For more information, please visit this products/manufacturers
webpage.
