About the Frailty programme

The London Clinical Network for Frailty in collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Wessex Academic Health Science Network have developed this elearning programme which aims to standardise training and knowledge of frailty as a complex multi-system, long term condition. This education programme is compliant with the ‘Frailty, A framework of core capabilities’ (2018) and has been funded through Health Education England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Workforce Collaborative for London.

It strives to promote a common language in frailty care and is designed to support enhanced clinical skills and competencies to be embedded within the existing workforce. It will support health and social care staff to meet the needs of individuals living with varying degrees of frailty and to deliver improved health outcomes.

Ensuring that there is equity in the understanding and knowledge of frailty across workforce is of paramount importance to enable delivery of consistent best practice outcomes and person experience. Currently there is limited frailty specific training available. Where present it is developed with a specific focus and does not consistently align with national and regional Ageing Well strategies for improvement.  This programme meets that need.

It explores the multi-system complexity of frailty via the Geriatric 5Ms. This simple framework which comprises Mind, Mobility, Medications, Multi-complexity and Matters most encompasses all the elements which are important when considering holistic care of older adults whatever setting you are in or profession you come from.

More information

The programme is split into 3 Tiers (courses):

• Tier 1
• Tier 2a
• Tier 2b

Tier 1 is designed to meet the learning needs of the general public, third sector staff, porters, security staff, reception staff in primary, secondary and community services. The Tier 1 learning module provides an awareness and understanding of what frailty is; how it is identified; frailty management and support available.

Tier 2 is split into 2a and 2b. This is because the breadth of the workforce included requires a wide-ranging skill set. The concept of 2a and 2b was created to ensure that the information is tailored to the right level depending on professional role and work setting.

Tier 2a

This includes but is not limited to:

• First responders such as London Ambulance Service, Hatszola Trust, St Johns Ambulance service, Good Samaritan volunteers, London Air Ambulance service
• Rapid response workforce such as rapid response nurses, community matrons, rapid response allied health professionals and pharmacists
• Care navigators
• Unregistered healthcare staff at band 2 to band 4
• Band 5 and lower band 6 registered nurses in emergency services and same day emergency services
• Doctors in emergency departments
• Pharmacist technicians
• Nursing associates
• Physician associates
• Community and social services staff
• Care home staff

Tier 2b

This level of training is for health and social care staff and others who are working in emergency departments and acute frailty services

This includes but is not limited to:

• GPs working in emergency departments
• Registrars and senior grade doctors in emergency departments
• Consultant physicians
• Acute care social workers
• Senior band 6 and 7 registered Nurses
• Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, and dieticians
• Band 7 and 8 pharmacists
• Emergency department advanced nurse practitioners
• Acute frailty practitioners
• Same day emergency care workforce

We do not expect people to complete all 3 tiers but to choose the course that most meets their needs and role expectations.

Acknowledgements

• Melinda Williamson – Clinical Project Manager, Clinical Network Frailty, NHS England and NHS Improvement-London Region, Frailty Practitioner, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Rebecca Gow – Interim Rehabilitation Pathway Lead, Community Independence Service (CIS) Kensington & Chelsea. Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• John Young – Reader/Associate Professor in Translational Medicine & Deputy Director, Institute of Biomedical and Biomolecular Sciences University of Portsmouth (part of Wessex AHSN collaboration)
• Paul Gallagher – MRCPsych MSc ST6 Psychiatrist. Mile End Hospital. East London NHS Foundation Trust
• Anne McGinley – Frailty Practitioner Pharmacist. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Jennifer Stevenson – PhD Clinical Lecturer/Integrated Care Pharmacist. Clinical Pharmacy and Medicines Use Group. Institute of Pharmaceutical Science. King’s College London
• Helen Bristow, John Kingand Marite Austrins – Patient and Public Voice team, Clinical Network Frailty, NHS England and NHS Improvement- London Region
• Carly Wilson – Clinical Matron for frailty, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (part of Wessex AHSN collaboration)
• Sawsen Sabbah – Lead Frailty Pharmacist, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (part of Wessex AHSN collaboration)

How to access

Available to all

The Frailty programme is freely available to access here.
Please note your progress and completion of sessions will not be recorded and you will not be able to generate a record of completion. If you require evidence of learning, please register and then log in to access this programme on the elearning for healthcare Hub.

If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the Frailty programme by logging in to the elearning for healthcare Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My elearning section.

Register >

To view the Frailty programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elearning for healthcare, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

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NHS healthcare staff in England

The Frailty programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.

Further details are available here.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are in Human Resources, Information Technology or a Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Frailty programme, please contact elearning for healthcare directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own Learning Management System

For Human Resource departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elearning for healthcare directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elearning for healthcare Hub.