C-ARE is a secure online site, available on mobiles, tablets and desktops, which signposts registered users to the most up to date induction materials, Standard Operating Procedures and wider guidance they need to introduce them to a new role.
Why is it needed?
C-ARE has been specifically commissioned by BTHFT for their use during the Covid-19 situation.
C-ARE supports new staff from outside the Trust and also existing staff who are transitioning temporarily into different Units.
In the longer term, C-ARE could be further developed to be an Education/Induction Tool for the Trust or for any Trust.
Introduction to Project
Our NHS staff are working, often in new roles and in new areas. Just imagine being one of those NHS heroes, and being asked to go and redeploy at a moments notice because there was a shortage of staff or a surge of patients. Imagine the anxiety of a nurse being deployed into an unfamiliar ward and not knowing where the emergency drug cupboard is. Imagine the stress of a recently retired doctor being asked to deliver immediate lift saving support without being familiar of the latest Trust guidance.
My name is Maulik (Mal) Gandhi and I am a consultant at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust (BTHFT). With my colleagues and the University of Bradford, we want to make sure that all our workers within the NHS have access to the information they need for a safe shift and deliver better care for our patients. This means giving teams an accelerated induction to the hospital and department they will be working in. It is vital we also provide a central easy-to-find area for all key documents, such as guidelines and rotas.
We have designed the C-ARE framework. It is a microsite that is secure and accessible from home, so that workers and volunteers can get access to important information before their shift commences. It is optimised for mobile phone and has a larger reach than the usual hospital’s intranet.
Our C-ARE framework has been designed to be scalable and deployable regionally, nationally and internationally. The framework is divided into:
- Locally relevant material
o Infection prevention & control
o Departmental guidance
o Trust-wide guidance
- Nationally relevant material
o National guidance
o Staff wellbeing
At BTHFT, we have populated our framework and also created “teams”. Our newly deployed members, such as interim FY1, nurses, junior doctors, HCAs, senior doctors and management can get access to highly relevant material to their roles in areas, such as A&E, ICU and respiratory wards.
We want to share this framework that we have designed as it will help our amazing staff within the NHS be better prepared.
This is an entirely non-commercial project to support the crisis management.
If you think this will benefit your hospital or healthcare facility, then please get in touch and one of the team can organise a time to go through this in more detail and run through how we are setting it up at BTHFT so it can be replicated and deployed nationally.