Training delivered by Truro and Penwith College saves lives
Truro and Penwith College’s REACH Cornwall project has received the ultimate accolade for the RESTORE2™ programme delivered to care providers locally. Roscarrack House Care Home on the outskirts of Falmouth recently told the team that this training has directly led to the lives of two residents being saved this year.
The RESTORE2™ tool was created by NHS West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group to assist care home staff to recognise early soft signs indicating that a resident may be deteriorating physically. It offers a framework for taking observations, responding and escalating concerns in order to achieve the best possible outcome for that person. In September it won the Health Service Journal Value Awards 2020 for a System or Commissioner Led Redesign Initiative and has been widely adopted across the UK.
REACH Cornwall worked in partnership with NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group to develop and run 13 funded RESTORE2™ workshops across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly from late January to early March. Following the UK lockdown, the content was adapted by the project to be taught online as part of Truro and Penwith College’s Connected College and a further 15 RESTORE2™ and RESTORE2™ Mini sessions took place virtually. In total, around 250 care staff from across the county received this training.
The tool and sessions covering it received a lot of very positive feedback and staff at Roscarrack House Care Home believe it has saved lives twice. In the first incidence, the resident was diagnosed with, and successfully treated for, sepsis after a carer noticed they were looking flushed. A couple of months later, a resident who had tested positive for Covid-19 showed similar signs which were once again picked up very early and life-saving treatment was quickly received. In both cases Donna MacKinnon, Head of Care at Roscarrack House Care Home, feels that, “what made the difference was our staff on duty really understanding the soft signs of deterioration and knowing the residents’ normal baseline vitals.”
She is full of praise for RESTORE2™ and the funded training and assistance her team received through the REACH Cornwall project.
“These tools have just been amazing for us and we now have the ‘RESTORE2™ Mini’ posters up in all of the residents’ rooms to remind staff about the soft signs to look out for. Rolling out RESTORE2™ has really empowered us as a team and we get a great response from doctors. We are so appreciative of the free RESTORE2 training that REACH Cornwall were able to provide for us and also the set of observation equipment we were given to support with the rollout of this in our home. During the Covid-19 outbreak that we had here, we were able to have one set of equipment in each part of the building as we had separated the Covid patients.”
REACH Cornwall has recently been given the go ahead to continue developing and delivering innovative training solutions tailored to the needs of the social care and healthcare sector until Summer 2023 thanks to part funding through the European Social Fund Business Clusters Project. Under this umbrella consortium, the project will now also seek to work with providers of early years care such as nurseries, pre-schools and child minders to discover and address their skills shortages. Details of the latest funded training opportunities from the project which include webinars on oral health and falls prevention can be found on Eventbrite at: http://reachcornwall.eventbrite.com.
For more information about REACH Cornwall visit: www.reachcornwall.org.uk