elearning materials from NPfIT

The NHS National Programme for IT has recently made available some elearning materials relating to the implementation of the programme. Two of these are accessible via the internet, with other materials being available only to NHS staff on N3 connections.

The Spine eKnowledge Tool

The Spine eKnowledge Tool aims to provide a user-friendly, high level theoretical overview of the national application technology employed by NHS Connecting for Health. They suggest it may be helpful for non-technical NHS staff and other users of the National Programme for IT, and potentially suppliers or students-in-training., and could also used for:

• Providing an introduction for training courses
• Providing an overview for external parties when required
• Providing a stand-alone module for familiarisation by multiple user types

Personal Demographics Service

The Personal Demographics Service eLearning course has been created to provide a high level theoretical awareness of what PDS is and how it is used.

The Patient Administration system reflected in this eLearning is generic and may not match each independent Patient Administration System.

This one also has an accessible html version

I found the materials limited and the level of interaction seemed to be largely clicking the "next" button. The "cartoon" approach didn't help me - but this may be because I am fairly aware of the content areas and recognise the needs of those with less knowledge of the topics may be different. The main delivery mode is flash which may not be compliant with SENDA and as they comment on the site NHS users may have to get their IT helpdesk to help to load the plug ins etc.

The section on security and confidentiality did not address the debates about the opt-in/opt-out requiremnets for patients to have their summary care records uploaded to the national spine.

Generally I think this may be useful for some people but the limited level of interaction and pace of the materials may put off some potential users.