The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
APPS: THE FUTURE OF CONSOLIDATED INFORMATION FOR MEDICAL STAFF AND THOSE IN MEDICAL TRAINING?
Briefly describe the initiative/ project/ service
The Christie hosts approx 75 FY2-ST8 trainees and 400 medical student per year, none of which are official employees of the trust. This is challenging as it is difficult to ensure that each new group have all the crucial information they will need to be confident and competent in their training post. This challenge has become increasingly difficult as resources have been stretched, information is stored across multiple systems and trainees have limited access to the network while on the move.
An audit in August 2016 revealed that 31% of trainees did not receive all of the information that they needed to fulfil their training requirements in the previous 12 months. In order to address this, the medical education team decided to consolidate all resources in a single smartphone application that can be accessed at all times. This final product does not need to be connected to Wi-Fi or data therefore the information is crucially accessible quickly within a clinical environment. Following implementation, the same audit identified 100% of respondents noting that they received all the information they needed.
Why do you think it should win this award?
EduKit went live in April 2017 for testing with trainees with full roll out to all medical staff and medical students from August 2017. The administrative team no longer circulate paperwork prior to changeover and at the start of student placements, instead a link to download EduKit is sent alongside signposting to the essential sections.
The app has been downloaded 365 times and there were 232 active users in August 2017. Of these active users, 87% were returning users which indicates that the app is being used regularly by the trainees. The most popular screens tend to include timetabling, contact details and the push notification message centre. Users spend on average 4.5 minutes per app session.
EduKit currently contains over 100 additional pieces of documentation; this is in addition to the written content on the app. This information is delivered in a clear and concise way and is available at the touch of a button. The resources associated with the high volume of inductions for trainees and medical students are vastly reduced using the app in terms of both time and cost to the medical education team.
What are the key achievements?
Free and available to all.
Consolidation of important documents.
100% of new Trainees reporting that they received all the information they needed from Medical Education to start their job.
87% of the users of the app are returning users which indicates that the app is being used regularly.
Annual cost saving of £4337 compared to pre-app for printing and associated costs.
