We believe in sharing what we know through teaching, so that what we learn can help patients everywhere.
Training is a vital part of our work and we have training facilities at both our hospitals to give clinical staff easy access to the most up-to-date training and teaching. Our programmes are world renowned, with teaching provided by experts in their fields, attracting delegates from around the world. We continually develop training for our teams to ensure they are equipped with the latest skills to deal with complex procedures, crisis management and to enable better team working.
UK’s first international postgraduate course in heart failure begins in London
Over 60 participants from more than 30 countries gathered at the Royal Society of Medicine for the start of the Trust-run UK first Postgraduate Course in Heart Failure this year.
Designed for cardiologists at an advanced stage in their training or early in their consultant career and with an interest in treating patients with heart failure, the new course was developed by experts at the Trust and the Institute of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science (a partnership with Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust), with support from the British Cardiovascular Society, the British Society for Heart Failure and Zurich Heart House.
Attendees came from all over the world – mainly from Europe, but also including the Far East, South Africa and the United States – and were selected from nearly 200 applicants.
Professor Thomas Lüscher, consultant cardiologist and director of research, education and development, said: “Heart failure is a true medical epidemic, it leads to serious illness, significantly impaired quality of life, and considerable costs for healthcare systems and societies.
“Recent developments have markedly increased the life expectancy of people at risk of heart failure, and reduced the amount of time they need to spend in hospital.
“This medical progress has meant that the cardiologists of today, not to mention tomorrow, have many options for their patients – from recommending lifestyle changes, to new drugs, brand new catheter procedures to ground-breaking surgery, as well as pacemakers and defibrillators, all the way through to assist devices and, of course in some cases, a heart transplant.
“This means that doctors treating patients with heart failure need truly excellent training across the full range of diagnostic and treatment options to give their patients the best possible care. This new programme offers education at the very highest academic and medical levels.”
The full course takes place over two years and includes six modules of four days each.
SPRinT team celebrates 10 years of teaching
Our specialist SPRinT team celebrated 10 years of providing expert training to clinical teams by holding a day of lectures, demonstrations and panel discussions for staff and external partners.
SPRinT – which stands for Simulated interPRofessional Team Training – uses state-of-the-art models and highly immersive situations to prepare teams for a variety of clinical emergency scenarios.
Programme director Dr Margarita Burmester said: “We work in an environment which is highly intense and involves fast decision making. Patient care is never done in isolation, it involves teams of people, so we wanted to improve team working skills to drive a culture of safety.
“It has been a long process, with a lot of learning along the way, but today we are conducting research that we are publishing and presenting internationally. We have trained more than 1,500 participants to date, and people from other institutions are wanting to come on our courses.”