Virtual College’s new training resources help tackle life threatening sepsis crisis

Sepsis claims 44,000 lives annually in the UK - more than bowel, breast and prostate cancer combined. Yet Sepsis is poorly recognised even within healthcare circles.

Sir Bruce Keogh, national medical director of NHS England, has introduced a major scheme to reduce the appalling number of people who die with sepsis each year. Hospitals are to lose up to £2million of their NHS funds if they do not hit targets to reduce the problem. In addition, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has recognised the need for a public awareness campaign.

It is crucial that clinical staff, GPs and professionals in community care have a thorough understanding of what sepsis is and how to deal with it.

To help tackle the sepsis crisis and save lives, Virtual College has worked with the UK Sepsis Trust to create engaging and thorough online training resources for these professionals.

Sepsis is a life threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs. Sepsis leads to shock, multiple organ failure and death especially if not recognised early and treated promptly.

Sepsis can be caused by a huge variety of different bugs, most cases being caused by common bacteria which we all come into contact with every day without them making us ill. Sometimes, though, the body responds abnormally to these infections, and causes sepsis.

New NICE guidelines, ‘Sepsis: recognition, diagnosis and early management’, are aimed at promoting best practice amongst healthcare practitioners.

Virtual College’s new online learning resources have been created in association with experts from the UK Sepsis Trust to provide an in-depth, comprehensive guide to the identification and treatment of sepsis which is consistent with these new NHS guidelines.

The UK Sepsis Trust was founded in 2012 by NHS consultant Dr Ron Daniels who is a Clinical Adviser (Sepsis) to NHS England and Chief Executive of the Global Sepsis Alliance.

“We have worked closely with Virtual College to help them create these valuable resources,” said Dr Daniels.

“They are engaging yet comprehensive and have been designed to help health professionals meet important new guidance.

“I would urge professionals to take advantage of these online learning resources.”

Judith Clarkson, Virtual College director, commented:”We have been creating online learning resources for the healthcare sector for over 10 years so we were aware of the gravity of the sepsis issue and wanted to help.

”Working closely with the UK Sepsis Trust, we understand that early intervention saves lives, and can reduce the length of hospital stay and need for critical care admission.

“The sepsis issue is so important that we wanted to make this online learning available as soon as possible to encourage immediate access from the wide range of professionals who could come across it.”

To find out more about this course visit www.sepsistraining.co.uk

NOTES TO THE EDITOR:

Virtual College won the prestigious ‘learning technologies supplier of the year’ 2016/17 in the independently-judged global awards. Virtual College has also been identified as one of London Stock Exchange’s 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain. The report is a celebration of the UK’s fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium sized businesses.

Virtual College has developed into one of the UK's leading providers of total solutions within the e-learning arena. Its key objective is to help enhance the traditional learning solution through the careful integration of technology.

Founded in 1995, today Virtual College has over 2.4 million registered online learners and this is growing at a rate of over 1,500 a day, across both public and private sectors. The company has developed a comprehensive product range, including over 300 online courses, accessed via the company's own Learning Management System, as well as offering a complete content design and development service. Further information is available at www.virtual-college.co.uk